
Priyanka Roy
Priyanka Roy heads the screen beat at The Telegraph t2. Based in Kolkata, she has 18 years of experience in film writing, which includes reviews, interviews, trend stories and opinion pieces. She writes on Hindi, English, regional Indian films and world cinema. When she isn’t watching something to review, she relaxes by watching true-crime documentaries.
All reviews by Priyanka Roy

The Woman in Cabin 10
Mystery, Drama, Thriller (English)
Carries forward the genre of mysteries with unreliable female narrators... with mixed results
Thu, October 16 2025
Aspiring to be Agatha Christie-lite, mounting a narrative that reminds one of the Knives Out films and attempting to throw in a bit of Hitchcockian suspense in a confined space setting, The Woman in Cabin 10 is the latest in the subgenre of unreliable female narrators, one that has gained momentum in the last decade with films like Gone Girl, The Girl on the Train, Before I Go To Sleep, The Woman in the Window, et al. The Woman in Cabin 10, recently released on Netflix, is based on Ruth Ware’s 2016 novel, and swaps the manor-style/chamber drama setting reserved for mysteries of such kind for a cruise ship. While that may initially come across as inventive, one immediately realises that Christie did it almost 90 years ago with Death on the Nile, that found its way to the big screen in 1978 and then as recently as 2022.

You're Cordially Invited
Comedy (English)
Will Ferrell and Reese Witherspoon are fun, You're Cordially Invited isn't
Wed, October 15 2025
Reese Witherspoon and Will Ferrell star in You’re Cordially Invited — the most Reese Witherspoon and Will Ferrell film possible. That both actors function as executive producers in this 2025 romantic comedy shouldn’t be a surprise. After all, both have earned their stripes largely being a part of such films — ones that are predominantly distinguished by their ability to slap together a ludicrous but mostly watchable story that brings on ample belly laughs. Whether you retain any bit of those films once you walk out of the theatre is, however, questionable.

Last Breath
Thriller, Drama (English)
A rare survival thriller that delivers without cranking up the melodrama
Sat, October 11 2025
A low-frills survival thriller with the drama ratcheted up to a level optimum enough to keep audiences on the edge of their seats is hard to come by. Last Breath gets quite a bit of that tricky formula right, even as it serves up an astounding story of resilience based on a true account. Directed by Alex Parkinson and released in select markets earlier this year, Last Breath is a feature film remake of the 2019 documentary that Parkinson co-directed with Richard da Costa. It follows the remarkable real-life story of a group of deep-sea divers who race against time to rescue a stranded teammate after an accident.

Hallow Road
Thriller, Mystery, Horror (English)
Slick direction, strong performances and a twist no one saw coming
Thu, October 9 2025
Every parent’s worst nightmare comes scarily alive in Hallow Road, a smartly mounted and slickly directed thriller that is packed as much with chills as it is laden with metaphor. Hallow Road is directed by British-Iranian filmmaker Babak Anvari, who has earned his stripes in the horror genre with a few memorable titles, including the 2019 film Wounds, starring Armie Hammer, Dakota Johnson and Zazie Beetz. In his latest turn, he takes his craft a notch higher with a single vehicle-two people story that takes place within the course of a few hours one night.

Sharp Corner
Thriller, Comedy (English)
An edgy psychological thriller that scores for refusing to explain itself
Tue, October 7 2025
Ben Foster knows a thing or two about playing men on the edge. In Sharp Corner, the actor takes a detour from the fast lane that he normally operates in for a deeply internalised portrayal of a husband and father whose seemingly perfect life unravels in a manner that calls for some taut, heart-pounding moments.

Sunny Sanskari Ki Tulsi Kumari
Romance, Comedy (Hindi)
We deserve better than a recycled rip-off like Sunny Sanskari Ki Tulsi Kumari
Fri, October 3 2025
Even before a grossly unconvincing twist derived from a popular multi-season web series (in which one of the actors in this film plays the lead) pops up towards the end, Sunny Sanskari Ki Tulsi Kumari has ‘mismatched’ written all over it. Now we aren’t just talking about its central premise — of two ditched exes seeking to win over their respective former partners who are marrying each other at their destination wedding (yes, confusion hi confusion hain, solution ka pata nahin) — but of Sunny Sanskari Ki Tulsi Kumari as a whole.

Homebound
Drama (Hindi)
A touching, telling and timely zeitgeist of the tumultuous times we live in
Fri, September 26 2025
Does cinema have the power to change? The jury is (perennially) out on that one. Homebound comes close, very close, to providing the answer. For me, the experience of watching this film felt like my heart had been wrenched out of my body, dessicated into a million pieces and put back again. I am still me, but the experience of Homebound makes me feel I am not the same.

Opus
Horror, Mystery, Thriller (English)
Despite a spot-on John Malkovich, Opus aims to be Midsommar-lite but doesn't quite get there
Thu, September 25 2025
If you have to cast someone as a 60-plus rock star who was once known as the “Wizard of Wiggle,” had 38 No. 1 hits in the ‘90s and used to date Cindy Crawford among many others — and now runs a (ahem!) cult — there is really only one name that comes to mind: John Malkovich. Besides being one of Hollywood’s most mystifying stars, Malkovich,71, has directed a play in Latvian, designed his own fashion lines, and even starred in a movie called Being John Malkovich that explores entering his mind. He has participated in shooting a film designed to be viewed in the year 2115, a project that highlights his unusual approach to filmmaking. His involvement in Being John Malkovich, he has claimed, was a deliberate choice, as he wanted to be involved in the “weirdest Hollywood movie ever made”. He has also famously said that “he believes he is the least eccentric person he knows.”
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