James Nelson-Joyce's star is soaring. Fresh from holding the small screen in shows like Strike, This City Is Ours and A Thousand Blows, he's making quite the name for himself as a tough guy. But it's films like Reputation that show the impressive range of an actor we're sure to see in more leading roles.

TV-style credits draw us into the fictional Lancashire town of Dennings, where Wes (James Nelson-Joyce) supports his fiancée and new baby through a tightly controlled low-level drug business in between training at his father's (Kru Lundy) dojo. While Zoe (Olivia Frances Brown) wants their new family to move away for a better life, Wes isn't quite ready yet. Clown, a new form of ecstasy, is keeping him ticking over, but things change when his old friend and partner Tommy (Kyle Rowe) gets out of prison. Tommy's plans to expand the operation to include manufacturing and supplying out of town, while his behaviour increasingly unravels, make Wes question what he's being drawn into and if he can ever get out.

Reputation is a familiar story. One of those tales of conflicted conscience and a character struggling to break free from their old life. But it powers through some well-worn beats with a raw and committed determination. It's fair to say it punches hard from the start, matching good casting with a pretty sharp script.

Tommy, the rogue, unpredictable, but consistently nasty element that represents chaos and inevitable destruction as well as the past Wes seeks to break free from, is a compellingly horrible presence. Rowe's sneering, volatile performance isn't subtle, but a masterclass of an irredeemable, dangerous force. Sex and violence are used as shorthand for the character, but co-writer, director and producer Martin Law makes sure the menace bubbles all over town.

The links drawn with early Shane Meadows are valid, although Reputation lacks some of the controlled chaos seen in that writer-director's early films. But while a film like Dead Man's Shoes brought its Western-inspired revenge to Matlock, Law filed in locations around Lancashire to construct the believable fictional town of Dennings.

In muted greys and browns, through streets and back alleys, where Wes and Tommy step over discarded pills ground into the cobblestones, Law creates a geography for Tommy's malevolent force to invade and Wes to question.

One inspired bit of double-casting helps draw out the levels of abuse and the range of victims in Tommy's orbit, particularly in the punch of the ending. Generally, it creates an extensive and believable network of characters: family, friends, and bullies. With scenes rehearsed just before recording, there's a fresh and realistic quality to the interactions, which helps cover some quality differences in the acting. But there's not much room to hide: Law often keeps the camera up close and disconcertingly close, that is, notably until one tipping point scene where Wes and Tommy have a stand-off, or sit-off, in a cafe, and the camera heads outside to observe the scene in silence.

At the centre is Nelson-Joyce's electric performance as Wes—the conflicted and concerned family man in the house, and menacing and decisive presence on the streets. Marrying the two things isn't easy, especially in a situation where there can't be many winners, and the consequence is more than reputation, but that's where this story comes alive.

Reputation is available on digital now.