Critic Reviews

Paying for It is a tremendous effort that honors Brown’s source novel while digging deeper into its subtext. By further developing these characters and emphasizing the female gaze, Lee provides a compelling narrative that neither glamorizes nor denigrates the women Chester encounters. I highly recommend this film.

Thanks to Lee’s smooth construction and her performers’ carefully calibrated performances – Beirne is particularly engaging in a role that doesn’t automatically earn sympathy – it all clicks together.

This is a story that could easily have descended into something very seamy, but Lee keeps the film's tone light. Sonny and Chester are lovely people, who are on the level and really, really like each other.

Paying for It keeps its narrative tight, perhaps overly simple. There’s space to savor the retro intimacy, amplified by the film’s striking primary colors and lo-fi rock soundtrack. Lee — while only gesturing toward the complexities of open arrangements — captures Chester and Sonny in a fleeting time that feels soft, but not shy.