Reputation
Wes (James Nelson-Joyce) is a low-level drug dealer in the fictional Northern English town of Dennings in director Mike Law’s feature debut, Reputation. The 30-year-old is content with his life of crime. However, when his friend Tommy (Kyle Rowe) returns after a stint in prison, Wes is dragged into Tommy’s violent world. With a loving partner (Olivia Frances Brown) and infant son to think about, Wes must find a way out before it’s too late.
There are shades of Shane Meadows in this gritty, micro-budget crime thriller as Law depicts this working-class community as a place scarred with violence. It’s an ambitious feature that touches on themes of trauma and masculinity with razor-sharp brutality. However, it ultimately struggles to navigate between its collection of ideas and plot points to create a cohesive whole.
Nelson-Joyce and Rowe give commendable performances as the protagonists. Underneath Wes’s laddish bravado that he puts on full display in front of his friends at the pub, there’s a genuine tenderness to the character that enables viewers to sympathise with his plight. Rowe, on the other hand, goes all-out as the sociopathic Tommy, who’s quick to anger and thinks spiking drinks with hard drugs is a harmless practical joke. The trouble is that the script mistakes bad taste for gritty writing. Tommy is so over-the-top as a character (he’s extremely violent, unpredictable, and unabashedly homophobic and misogynistic) that he becomes a caricature. Without the tact or stylish flair deployed by Meadows or Guy Ritchie in their works, Reputation’s attempts at dark humour don’t land as intended.
The stakes steadily escalate as Wes’s situation worsens. The rising conflict between him and Tommy creates a sense of urgency that drives the plot towards its inevitable conclusion. Subplots regarding Wes’s relationship with his father, drugs that mysteriously disappear, and the recent death of a child, however, are less refined and subsequently become lost in the background. The lack of development in some of these key areas results in an ending that’s confused and somewhat rushed.
There’s a strong foundation to Law’s ambitious feature debut that’s backed by solid performances from its leads. It’s unfortunate that Reputation is let down by underdeveloped plotlines and misplaced humour.
Andrew Murray
Reputation is released digitally on 28th July 2025.
Watch the trailer for Reputation here:
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
YouTube
RSS