“By Design” follows Camille, a woman who swaps bodies with a chair, and everyone likes her better as a chair.
This is a film that is extremely difficult to review. It explores powerful themes of the objectification of women, selfishness and love — but does so in very off-kilter ways. This makes the entire world feel out of place, alongside the characters within it. The performances are the highlight of that, being extremely monotone and purposefully unrealistic. Juliette Lewis (Camille) and Mamoudou Athie (Olivier) are at the heart of this, both excelling in the roles that they were given.
It goes against several filmmaking “rules,” using jarring cuts and framing subjects in strange ways. It also abandons its main character for large chunks of the film. This all adds up to an overall unusual viewing experience.
“By Design” is certainly on the nose with its messaging, and hammers home its core ideas over the 92-minute runtime. This becomes overbearing at times, as there are a lot of meandering conversations occurring, but they aren’t amounting to much. The movie shifts from scene-to-scene discussing these topics, yet there’s no story or direction. Narration is at the heart of this, explicitly telling the viewer what is happening rather than letting it unfold onscreen. This leads to a variety of pacing issues, making the length feel longer than it actually is.
The movie itself is as bizarre as the premise, using this mixture of strange visuals and dialogue to “perfection.” “By Design” is weird… by design. The film is at its best when it’s silent, as the imagery is really what allows the messaging to shine through. It loses this focus when it becomes exposition-heavy.
“By Design” attempts to be a meaningful movie, but ultimately comes off as pretentious. It says a lot about love, objectification and the selfish nature of humans, while also not saying anything coherent at all. It’s bizarre from start-to-finish, and while that in itself isn’t bad… the film doesn’t embrace this to truly make a difference.
Rating: 2 out of 5
