BY DESIGN After Dark

Set in a vibrant and fantastical Los Angeles, mild-mannered Camille (Juliette Lewis) is the submissive one in her image-obsessed friendship trio. On a customary day of window shopping, they encounter the Stunner — an exquisite wooden chair like none other. A chair that, unbeknownst to Camille, can transcend corporeal existence — and because she desires it, so do her friends Lisa (Samantha Mathis) and Irene (Robin Tunney). When the chair sells for a steep price to an unknown buyer, Camille’s envy and resentment compel her to make a fateful wish, one that causes her soul to inhabit the object she so desperately admires. Meanwhile, passive pianist Olivier (Mamoudou Athie) has just been broken up with, and his ex — who took every piece of furniture with her — gifts him a singular chair to soothe his broken heart. Olivier develops an emotional connection to this stunning seat, whose inner being is that of Camille’s, but is it her essence that he clings to or the lingering memory of his recent flame? Amanda Kramer’s (PLEASE BABY PLEASE, 2022) charmingly avant-garde body-swap film takes viewers on a curiously profound journey that is anything but inanimate. Featuring a stellar cast with Juliette Lewis at the helm, appearances from Udo Kier and Clifton Collins Jr. and Melanie Griffith as the cheeky, omniscient narrator. –Julia Kipnis