Paying For It

Chester Brown’s 2011 graphic novel told the story of his own journey into johnhood after the dissolution of his romantic life with long-time partner Sook-Yin Lee. More than a decade later, Lee, working with co-writer Joanne Sarazen (Tammy’s Always Dying, TIFF ’19), finds a cinematic analogue for Brown’s framing and compositions — a little gray, a bit flat — while bringing his characters to three-dimensional life. The result is a synthesis of Brown's confessional storytelling and Lee’s auto-fictional style.

Daniel Beirne (The Twentieth Century, TIFF ’19; I Like Movies, TIFF ’22), plays Chester, who’s liberated by the idea of sexual relationships without any emotional entanglements; if anything, he’s slightly befuddled by the way everyone asks him if he knows what he’s doing.

Emily Lê (Riceboy Sleeps, TIFF ’22) is Lee’s alter ego Sonny, who follows her open heart into every new opportunity and expects Chester to give her the space to figure out each resulting reconfiguration of their relationship. (Lee doesn’t let herself off the hook for the pain she causes, either.)

They’re surrounded by a cast of gifted Toronto character actors, most vividly Modern Whore author-producer Andrea Werhun as a culturally literate outcall worker whose genuine chemistry with Chester might challenge his newfound sexual liberation. (Or not.)

Lee connects the past with the present, bringing together Canadian underground artists and innovative cross-generational musicians to explore ideas around labour, sex work, queer culture, and forward-thinking freedoms. The result is a story only she could bring to the screen … because it’s her story, too.

NORM WILNER

Content advisory: violence, nudity, mature themes, sexually suggestive scenes, sexual language