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Novitiate
Directed by
Margaret Betts
R
2017
2h 3m
Drama
6.7
85%
68%
6.4
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Set in the early 1960s and during the era of Vatican II, a young woman in training to become a nun struggles with issues of faith, the changing church and sexuality.
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Where to Watch Novitiate
Amazon Video
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Apple TV
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Fandango At Home
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Cast of Novitiate
Margaret Qualley
Sister Cathleen
Melissa Leo
Reverend Mother
Julianne Nicholson
Nora Harris
Dianna Agron
Sister Mary Grace
Lisa Stewart
Sister Genevieve
Morgan Saylor
Sister Evelyn
Liana Liberato
Sister Emily
Rebecca Dayan
Sister Emanuel
Eline Powell
Sister Candace
Chelsea Lopez
Sister Charlotte
Maddie Hasson
Sister Sissy
Denis O'Hare
Archbishop
Chris Zylka
Chuck Harris
Alyssa Brindley
Sister Kate
Hannah Renèe Jackson
Sister Anne
Marco St. John
Father Luca
Eliza Stella Mason
Cathleen, 7 Years Old
Bill Shick
Local Priest
Danny Vinson
Rob, Church Usher
Angela Fox
Sister Gloria
Novitiate Ratings & Reviews
AARP Movies for Grownups
Thelma Adams
Director Margaret Betts offers a beautifully-shot, thoughtful drama, filled with some fine acting, particularly by Melissa Leo.
Spectrum Culture
Kristen Lopez
Novitiate is a beguiling movie that requires a thorough examination of your own conscience and connection to religion.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Calvin Wilson
Most films, especially mainstream ones, are about the forces that whirl around characters. "Novitiate" grapples with what's going on inside them.
Austin Chronicle
Marc Savlov
Leo owns the film. Even when she's not onscreen, the character's heavy, leaden love for her God by all means necessary hovers, wraithlike, over novitiates and viewers alike.
Seattle Times
Moira MacDonald
In Leo, it presents a remarkable portrait of a complex woman struggling with forces beyond her control.
San Diego Reader
Matthew Lickona
[Reverend Mother Leo's] countenance alternates between a stony smile and a twisted snarl, except for the moments when the changes wrought by Vatican II threaten to loosen her iron grip over her young charges. Then she simply goes to pieces.
Philadelphia Inquirer
Gary Thompson
There are times when Novitiate tests the viewer's endurance - it's a beautifully shot movie, but it runs more than two hours, and lingering compositions of silent nuns and novitiates start to feel unsupported by the story.
Arizona Republic
Kerry Lengel
The film raises interesting questions, but the answers remain elusive, and whether that makes for a compelling cinematic experience is entirely in the eye of the beholder.
Boston Globe
Ty Burr
It's well worth seeing ... not least for the ways it conveys the profound intensity of religious devotion and the costs such devotion can exact.
San Francisco Chronicle
Mick LaSalle
It says everything about the effective subtlety of Betts' writing and of the performances it inspired that much of what we know of the characters is rarely if ever stated.
Chicago Reader
Andrea Gronvall
Writer-director Maggie Betts balances the naturalistic exchanges of her sympathetic young cast with bravura set pieces for the seasoned actors.
America Magazine
John Anderson
... but there is a coyness about "Novitiate" that makes a viewer not care so very much.
Washington Post
Michael O'Sullivan
Betts has put together a talented acting ensemble, and the performances are, for the most part, uniformly good and subtle, particularly among the actresses who play the young novices.
Observer
Rex Reed
You can call Novitiate divinely inspired and mean it.
Rolling Stone
Peter Travers
A stirring, soulful convent drama from first-time director Maggie Betts features Melissa Leo in an Oscar-worthy performance as Mother Superior. The film is a potent provocation shot through with grit and grace.
Entertainment Weekly
Leah Greenblatt
Novitiate is an intriguing if somewhat opaque movie, a feverish testament to the long reach and hard limits of faith.
New York Magazine/Vulture
David Edelstein
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.
RogerEbert.com
Christy Lemire
Novitiate finds room for all these viewpoints; appreciating the dedication it takes to live such a life while also questioning its suppression of individuality, emotion. This willingness to embrace such complexity is a bit of a miracle in itself.
leonardmaltin.com
Leonard Maltin
Novitiate is a solid and nuanced drama that enables us to experience a world most of us know little or nothing about.
Wall Street Journal
Joe Morgenstern
In a time of reflexive irony and glib sophistication, Ms. Betts has made a lovely film about love of God-about marriage to God-and given it a political dimension as well as a dominant character of fierce complexity.
Watch Novitiate Videos
Novitiate
Novitiate
Trailer
Penance
Penance
Scene
Let's Talk About Silence
Let's Talk About Silence
Scene
Part Of My Problem Is You
Part Of My Problem Is You
Scene
We Are Part Of This Church Too
We Are Part Of This Church Too
Scene
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