I remember reading Chester Brown’s Paying For It many years ago and being amazed at its unapologetic openness about the consumer side of sex work and its self-portrature. I suppose I shouldn’t have been, as Brown’s Yummy Fur books always had that same naked-to-the-world quality as it discussed things like Brown’s real relationships and his addition to pornography, but Paying For It seemed especially…is ‘brave’ the word?
Whatever term I’d apply to Brown’s honest self-portrayal in graphic novel form applies equally to his best friend, ex-partner, and pivotal character in Paying For It, Sook-Yin Lee’s new film adaptation of the story. In translating the book to screen, Lee necessarily has to grapple again with depicting herself – good, bad, and ultimately honestly – from someone else’s perspective. It’s a remarkable and unusual challenge, and I was again surprised (and, again, shouldn’t be given the calibre of artist that Lee has always been) that the adaptation works as well as it does and so vividly gets across the style and tone and messaging of Brown’s book.
Like the book, Paying For It begins with an ending. Or at least it’s the end of a particular chapter in the relationship between Chester (Dan Beirne) and Sonny (Emily Le). Sonny confides in Chester that she’s in love with someone else, and expresses a desire to open their relationship. Agreeable to this arrangement, though the openness seems to largely be on Sonny’s side, Chester moves into the basement as Sonny moves onto a series of other partners.
Chester begins to patronize sex workers as a means to recapture intimacy without the emotional complications of a relationship. Maybe this is why many or even most people engage with sex work. To me, Chester’s encounters with these various women seem to have the tenor of an IKEA catalogue, and I don’t mean that in a negative or derogatory way at all. Other depictions of sex work tend to be steamy and deeply erotic, whereas both Chester’s book and Sook-Yin’s film are almost clinical and instructional. And in presenting sex work this way, it removes so much of the stigmatizing emotional baggage and almost all of the preachiness of those depictions. Neither would – or should – one come away from either version of Paying For It feeling like they should either feel sorry for sex workers or that it’s an ad for sex work. It’s as neutral a story, I think, as one could hope for. Through Chester’s (both versions) vocal advocacy for the legalization and removal of stigma against the industry, Paying For It makes a strong statement about the need for an acceptance of sex work in order to make it safe to practice and to bring it out of the shadows.
You’d think that directing a film in which you’re one of the main characters, recounting an incredibly personal and sensitive portion of your life, would tempt you to sugarcoat that recounting. But I really don’t think that Lee has done so here, and offers a frank, honest, and often extremely unflattering portrayal of both herself and Brown. For their parts, Emily Le’s Sonny and Dan Beirne’s Chester, especially the latter, play the couple in a way that feels honest and true to Brown’s novel.
Unabashedly and lovingly set at the end of the twentieth century in Toronto, Paying For It feels more than a little like a time capsule for someone my age who grew up in the city during this time period and often found myself at the same bars, parties, and neighbourhoods depicted here. A good companion piece for this movie would be Chandler Levack’s upcoming Mile End Kicks, which depicts the art and music communities in Montreal of the same period. Residents or those otherwise familiar with Toronto will recognize landmarks and details about the city that’ll feel immediately recognizable and, at least for me, comforting in a way that contrasts compellingly against Paying For It’s deliberately uncomfortable subject matter.
Telling parallel stories of Chester and Sonny gives Paying For It an interesting structure that sets it apart from almost every romantic comedy, even before you get to its unconventional subject and exploration of relationships that are outside the accepted norms. It does share a bit of DNA with Kevin Smith’s Chasing Amy, which tells the story of two people (one of whom is also a comic artist) in an unusual and socially complicated relationship. I think Lee’s film handles its material in a more thoughtful and fully-realized way, though, and feels like it has more to say than Smith’s film does. Overall, I’d say that for her remarkable effort in bringing Brown’s book to life in such an honest and authentic way, Lee’s Paying For It is worth the price of admission, and then some.
Sook-Yin Lee’s Paying For It, based on the graphic novel by Chester Brown, is in theatres now and is also available for streaming in Canada on Crave.