Set in the midst of the Catholic Church’s 1964 “Vatican II” reforms, Novitiate begins with 17-year-old Cathleen (Margaret Qualley) entering a convent and telling us, “Under everything else, we were women in love.” She means with God; the point of writer/director Margaret Betts’ sensitive spiritual drama is that sometimes that relationship feels one-sided. Cathleen, raised by an agnostic mother (Julianne Nicholson), found her own way to the sisterhood and has an earnest connection with the Lord that doesn’t preclude having doubts. Meanwhile, the strictly old-school Reverend Mother (Melissa Leo), who’s been a nun for 40 years and is 100 percent certain of everything, finds herself struggling with the Vatican II rebranding. Qualley is a soulful lead, but the emotional center is Leo’s heartbreakingly relatable performance as a woman whose world is changing. by Eric D. Snider