Amok: A sweaty, desperate mess of a movie

Is it worth your time?

If you're the type who enjoys watching a man slowly unravel because of his own ego and a bad crush, you'll probably get a kick out of Amok. It’s definitely not for folks who need their characters to be likable or their endings to feel tidy.

Honestly, if you find people making the absolute worst choice in every possible scenario frustrating, skip this one. You’ll just be yelling at the screen for two hours.

The whole thing feels trapped. You can practically smell the damp clothes and the cheap gin coming off Dr. Holk. He’s the kind of guy who thinks he’s smarter than everyone else just because he’s miserable, and it’s genuinely painful to watch him realize he’s just as pathetic as the people he treats.

There’s this moment when Hélène walks into his office, and the way the light hits the room just feels wrong. Not bad, just heavy. It’s like the air is too thick to breathe.

The shift from the medical stuff to the obsession is weirdly sudden. One minute he's a doctor, the next he's basically a stalker with a fancy degree. It reminded me a bit of the frantic energy in The Wicked Darling, though here the stakes feel a lot more personal and sweaty.

I couldn't help but notice how much the background noise matters here. The jungle sounds are always there, buzzing and clicking, making the silences feel way more tense than they probably should be.

Random thoughts from the back row:

• The dive bar scenes look like they haven't been cleaned since the turn of the century. You can feel the grit.
• Holk’s refusal to help her at first isn't even about morals, is it? It’s just pure, unadulterated spite.
• The pacing hits a wall halfway through, but then it picks up this manic speed that’s hard to look away from.
• Maybe skip the snacks during the tropical disease scenes. Seriously.

It’s not a masterpiece, and it definitely feels dated in ways that are hard to ignore. But there’s something about the way it captures total, unhinged desperation that keeps you glued to the chair. You just want to see how deep the hole gets before he stops digging.