| Paying for It | |
| Director: | Sook-Yin Lee |
| Producer: | Matt Code Sonya Di Rienzo Aeschylus Poulos |
| Based On: | Paying for It by Chester Brown |
| Starring: | Dan Beirne Emily Lê Andrea Werhun |
| Music: | Sook-Yin Lee Dylan Gamble |
| Cinematography: | Gayle Ye |
| Editing: | Anna Catley |
| Studio: | Wildling Pictures Hawkeye Pictures |
| Distributor: | Loco Films |
| Country: | Canada |
| Language: | English |
Paying for It is a Canadian drama film, directed by Sook-Yin Lee and released in 2024.[1] It is an adaptation of Chester Brown's graphic novel Paying for It, about his decision to start frequenting sex workers after the breakup of his real-life relationship with Lee.
The film stars Dan Beirne as Brown and Emily Lê as Sonny, as well as Andrea Werhun, Kaitlyn Chalmers-Rizzato, Stephen Kalyn, Chris Sandiford, Kris Siddiqi, Scott Thompson, Sera-Lys McArthur and Rodrigo Fernandez-Stoll in supporting roles.
Production on the film was first announced in 2022.[2] In contrast to the original graphic novel, which used artistic techniques to obscure the faces of the sex workers due to Brown's concern for the women's privacy rights but faced some criticism for seemingly dehumanizing them, Lee's film adaptation, through a "female gaze", more strongly centres the women's own perspectives.[3]
Although Lee herself is a character in the original graphic novel, for the film adaptation she chose to rename her character Sonny to give herself some creative distance from the material.[4]
The film premiered in the Platform Prize program at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival.[5] In conjunction with the film premiere, Drawn & Quarterly reissued a new "film edition" of the graphic novel, with a foreword by Lee and special bonus material about the film production.[3]
It has been picked up for international distribution by Loco Films.[6]
Alex Hudson of Exclaim! rated the film 8 out of 10, writing that "even though this story is being told by the people it happened to, it's not overly flattering to its subjects. Chester's transactional approach to sex brings out his superficiality, and when he tells his friends about how great it is, he rarely expresses much overt happiness, often seeming as much like he's trying to convince himself as anyone else. And Sonny is judgmental and fickle, steering their lives into one unsustainable situation after another. They're flawed while remaining likeable and relatable."[7]
After the conclusion of the festival, Hudson and colleague Rachel Ho identified the film as one of its overall highlights, writing that "Toronto cartoonist Chester Brown decided to hire sex workers after a bad breakup with ex-girlfriend Sook-Yin Lee — at which point he made the surprising decision to publicly write about it in a graphic novel. Even more surprising is that Lee is the one to adapt that story for the screen. Come for the intensely intimate tell-all, stay for the fun '90s Toronto references."[8]
Courtney Small of That Shelf wrote that "wrapping all the various connections in a simple but effective aesthetic, Lee's film truly feels like a graphic novel come to life. One could easily see the film playing in a double bill alongside Terry Zwigoff's Ghost World or even, to a certain extent, Kevin Smith's Chasing Amy, which also involves a cartoonist who finds himself in a complicated relationship. Make no mistake though, Lee crafts a film that stands firmly on its own richly constructed merits. Whether finding humour in each new encounter Chester has with a sex worker, or observing the sparks that ignite Sonny's passion for her new lovers, each section of the film feels fully realized."[9]