Novitiate

Filmmaker Margaret Betts develops this sensitive and profound account of Cathleen (Margaret Qualley), a young woman raised by a single mother in rural Tennessee, whose spiritual hunger sets her on an unexpected path: to a nunnery. Her religious passion mixes with adolescent yearnings, tradition, and change as she’s drawn into the mystery and romanticism of a life devoted to worshiping and serving God. Ruling the nunnery with an iron fist, Melissa Leo offers a bravura performance as the reverend mother who must contend with her young charges and her own steadfast faith at a time when Vatican II shakes her world with its major doctrinal changes.