Addiction, Power, and a Fractured Brotherhood

MOVIE REVIEW
Reputation
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Genre: Crime, Drama
Year Released: 2024, UK Digital Release 2025
Runtime: 1h 23m
Director(s): Martin Law
Writer(s): Martin Law, Dean Gregson, Jordan Derbyshire
Cast: James Nelson-Joyce, Kyle Rowe, Olivia Frances Brown
Where to Watch: available on UK digital now

RAVING REVIEW: REPUTATION didn’t need a sprawling city or a sprawling runtime to make an impact. Set in a small Lancashire town still scarred by tragedy and soaked in tension, Martin Law’s 83-minute feature debut delivers a brutal yet empathetic look at male identity, loyalty, and the illusion of escape. For all the familiar elements—drug deals, toxic friendships, and spiraling violence—there’s a freshness here rooted in direction, confident performances, and a deep understanding of working-class lives.

At the center is Wes, played with restraint and nuance by James Nelson-Joyce, whose performance here signals a major turning point in his career. Wes isn’t a criminal mastermind or some mythical gangster figure. He’s a dealer cashing in on his town’s growing addiction to a new drug called “clown,” trying to provide for his partner Zoe (Olivia Frances Brown) and their son, Vinnie. But the stability he’s built in Tommy’s absence is as fragile as the peace that holds their town together.

Tommy, played with twitchy volatility by Kyle Rowe, returns from prison with grand ambitions and a short fuse. He’s the kind of friend you dread answering a call from—charismatic enough to draw you in, but dangerous enough to destroy everything. When he re-enters Wes’ life, what begins as a familiar bond quickly turns into a power struggle. The more Wes tries to step away, the harder Tommy pulls him back in. Their escalating dynamic becomes the pulse of the film, and both actors match each other beat for beat in raw, escalating tension.

The stakes aren’t grandiose, but they’re real. That’s where REPUTATION thrives—not in trying to romanticize the world they live in or stylize the violence, but in portraying how deep ties and small-town desperation can make the simple act of walking away feel impossible. This isn’t about empire building. It’s about survival and the panic of trying to outrun your past in a town that remembers everything.

The film’s setting, the fictional town of Dennings, is presented with just the right amount of grit. There’s a lived-in grime to everything—the alleys, the pubs, the homes where grief simmers below the surface. It’s not just a backdrop; it’s an extension of the story. And Law never lets the camera settle. This isn’t poverty porn or another grim slice of realism for its own sake. It’s grounded, observational, and drawn from experience.

Law may be a first-time feature filmmaker, but he knows how to frame silence, how to let characters hang in the aftermath of a scene, and how to use space to create unease. The editing is sharp without being flashy, and while the pacing is deliberate, it never drags. The film knows exactly when to breathe and when to suffocate you.

One of REPUTATION’s smartest moves is avoiding the trap of over-explanation. We’re never spoon-fed backstories or told how to feel. The history between Wes and Tommy is written in glances, clenched fists, and the kinds of fights that never really end. The screenplay also resists easy moralizing. Wes is not “trying to go clean” in the usual sense. He’s not reformed. He’s conflicted. And that ambiguity gives the film weight.

The supporting cast also does solid work. Olivia Frances Brown, in particular, brings warmth and resilience to Zoe—a character who could’ve been sidelined as a nagging partner but instead becomes the film’s emotional anchor.

REPUTATION owes more to the grounded grime of early Shane Meadows than to the polished sheen of bigger British crime films. But that’s where it finds its authenticity. It doesn’t glamorize. And in doing so, it captures something real about fractured masculinity and the slow erosion of agency in environments that punish vulnerability. There are flashes of stylization—a few confrontations that feel heightened, an intensity to the score that amplifies pressure—but overall, the film is more fly-on-the-wall than theatrical. It trades spectacle for impact. Even when the violence arrives, it’s quick, raw, and consequential.

REPUTATION isn’t reinventing the genre. It’s reminding us why it still matters when done well—when the characters feel lived-in, the story resonates beyond the screen, and the final gut-punch isn’t about shock, but about inevitability. Law’s debut proves that the British indie crime drama isn’t dead. It just needed someone to remember what makes it work: character over chaos, setting over style, and emotion over exposition. REPUTATION nails all three. It’s not perfect, but it leaves a mark, and for a film all about the weight of perception and the impossibility of reinvention, that feels like exactly the right legacy.

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[photo courtesy of MIRACLE MEDIA]

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