Skip to main content

Sundance 2025: all the latest movie reviews and updates from the festival

See all Stories

A
By Design.

It turns out Juliette Lewis makes a very good chair. In this surreal film her character Camille feels overlooked and ignored, until one day she finds the most beautiful designer chair, and the two somehow switch places. While Camille’s inanimate body becomes a strange source of fascination for her friends, she truly feels seen with her soul inside of the chair, which has become an obsession for pianist Olivier (Mamoudou Athie). The movie can drag in moments, particularly because of its lengthy narration, but its strange vision is weirdly charming and eventually pushes towards a surprisingly intense climax.

A still from the film By Design.
Image: Sundance Institute
Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.