A cultural snapshot of turn-of-the-millennium Toronto with subtle comic energy and a great cast, Sook-Yin Lee’s adaptation of Chester Brown’s autobiographical 2011 graphic novel is a movie only Lee could make… because it’s her story, too.

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, 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, 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 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.

"It doesn’t matter which prism you view Lee’s film through -- they all intersect and add up together so seamlessly and confidently that you can choose your own adventure without sacrificing the whole." (Globe and Mail)

Director Sook Yin-Lee will be joining us for a post-screening Q&A.

Thursday, May 15
Doors 6:00 pm | Film 6:30 pm *Start time subject to change. Please arrive on time.

PAYING FOR IT (Sook-Yin Lee, 2025 / 85 mins / NR) In the late '90s, Chester and Sonny are a long-term, committed, romantic couple. When Sonny wants to redefine their relationship, Chester, a painfully introverted cartoonist, starts sleeping with sex workers and discovers a new kind of intimacy in the process.