Novitiate

2017

123 mins

Directed by Margaret Betts
86%
68%
Drama

Convent drama starring Margaret Qualley (The Nice Guys) as a young woman training to become a nun in the early... More

Convent drama starring Margaret Qualley (The Nice Guys) as a young woman training to become a nun in the early '60s, during the Vatican II era. Also features Oscar-winner Melissa Leo.

"Spanning the early 1950s through the mid-’60s, this coming-of-age story is about a young girl's first love. In this case, her first love is God. Raised by a deeply caring, non-religious mother, Cathleen (Qualley) is drawn to the heady mysticism of the lives of Catholic nuns and their undying romantic devotion to their chosen husband, Jesus Christ. She enrolls in a training program with The Sisters of Blessed Rose, a cloistered convent. As Cathleen progresses from the postulant to the novitiate levels of her tutelage, her faith is challenged by the harsh, often inhumane realities of being a nun, just as Pope John XXIII’s announcement of the Second Vatican Council threatens to alter the course of nuns’ lives forever." (Sundance Film Festival)

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Where to watch Novitiate

Novitiate is available to stream in New Zealand now on... More Google TV and Apple TV Store.

Novitiate | Ratings & Reviews

86_%108 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes® rating
68_%1,890 reviews
Audience score rating

"Betts has succeeded in capturing a watershed moment in the life of the Catholic Church - a push to adapt that is, in important ways, at odds with its very origins."

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Vulture

"A piercing, immersive, and superbly played convent drama in which the suppression of speech is witnessed at both an individual and institutional level."

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Variety

"Betts aims divinely high and succeeds in both understanding and respectfully critiquing organised religion."

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Time Out

"Ms. Betts refrains from easy, uplifting answers and facile condemnations of organised religion."

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The New York Times

"What's most interesting is the way Betts taps into the complicated semi-romantic dynamic between the nuns and Jesus, the man to whom they have dedicated themselves."

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Screen Daily

"The tension Leo can generate simply by entering a room is extraordinary; the folds in her wimple look like extra neck tendons."

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Los Angeles Times

"Mesmerises as it probes a uniquely female-dominated milieu where passions - both religious, sexual and a combination of the two - run hot under those starched, lily-white coifs and black habits."

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