Juliette Lewis in Kooky Body Swap Indie Comedy ‘By Design’ Trailer

by Alex Billington
December 19, 2025
Source: YouTube

“Have you heard of this movie where Juliette Lewis plays a chair?” “Yes, of course, but remind me about the chair part?” Music Box has debuted their trailer for a kooky indie comedy called By Design, created and directed by filmmaker Amanda Kramer. This premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival a year ago and will be out to watch in February just in time for Valentine’s Day. One of the strangest films you’ll ever see. A woman swaps bodies with a chair, and everyone likes her better as a chair. It’s an indie comedy but it’s not really just a simple body swap comedy – it’s also some especially weird commentary on loneliness & romance. Narrated by Melanie Griffith, this modern fable celebrates the messiness of female interiority with deadpan humor, surrealist flourishes, and interpretative dance numbers. An “absurdist spin” on the body-swap comedy. Starring Juliette Lewis, Mamoudou Athie (love him), Samantha Mathis, Robin Tunney, Alisa Torres, Clifton Collins Jr., Keir Gilchrist, with Udo Kier (RIP) and Betty Buckley. Very interesting 4th-wall-breaking trailer. This one is definitely only for the most adventurous cinephiles…

Here’s the full official trailer (+ poster) for Amanda Kramer’s film By Design, direct from YouTube:

Upon seeing a gorgeous chair in a showroom, Camille (Juliette Lewis) realizes that she truly envies the life of this perfect piece of furniture. If only she could be someone’s favorite thing… When she and the chair magically swap forms, Camille learns that she is better liked as an inanimate object than she was as a person: her mother (Betty Buckley) finds her a better listener, and her best friends (Samantha Mathis & Robin Tunney) enjoy a newfound, friction-free rapport. As the chair, Camille is unable to speak or move and winds up in the hands of Olivier (Mamoudou Athie), a minimalist bachelor who gradually becomes romantically fixated on his elegant new possession. By Design is written and directed by indie filmmaker Amanda Kramer, director of the films Paris Window, Ladyworld, Please Baby Please, Give Me Pity!, So Unreal previously. Produced by Miranda Bailey, Sarah Winshall, Jacob Agger, Natalie Whalen. This initially premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. Music Box Films debuts Kramer’s By Design film in select US theaters starting February 13th, 2026 coming soon this winter. Anyone want to watch?

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