This fall promises to be another jam-packed season filled with weepy, very dramatic films aimed at taking Oscar gold, but there is hope for moviegoers who want something devilishly fun, and its name is Choke. It’s been nine years since Fight Club was released, making this Chuck Palahniuk’s second novel to be adapted for the big screen, and this one comes stuffed with sex addicts, con artists, hippie burnouts, Alzheimer’s patients, disturbing flashbacks, clueless strippers, colonial recreation hijinks and a conspiracy about Christ.

For those who have not read the book, Victor Mancini (Sam Rockwell) is a medical school dropout trying to pay the bills for his mother’s very expensive nursing home and is suffering from a lack of funds. To offset his financial quandary, he decides to begin asphyxiating in the most expensive restaurants in town and allows himself to be saved by other patrons. Often the patrons feel so proud of themselves for saving his life that they send him money and well wishes upon hearing his sob stories. When he’s not choking on steak in restaurants, he’s off with his best friend, Denny (Brad William Henke), going to strip clubs or sex addicts meetings.

Choke grips you in a web of obsession and devotion. In turns, this story is both outrageous and endearing. Victor’s problems stem from his complicated relationship with his mother, who is now suffering from the dementia portion of the Alzheimer’s disease. Victor’s growing love for a certain doctor slowly unravels his constrained emotional depths and gives him the impetus to evolve beyond his childhood trauma. As a person, this enriches his world, but as these things go, his decision to escape his perfect rut ruins his plans to remarkable effect and only serves to thrill the audience further. Choke is a story that I cannot wait to suck down again.