The Overnighters

At first, this thoughtfully made documentary seems to be about fracking because it takes place in Williston, North Dakota, which is essentially ground zero for natural gas extraction in the U.S. But this film is actually about what happens when many desperate men — and they are mostly men — come to Williston for work that is plentily available in the fracking fields and find that rents are more expensive than Manhattan. Some of these men are taken in temporarily by Jay Reinke, an energetic and ebullient pastor who lets them sleep at Concordia Lutheran Church, but his Christian hospitality rankles some parishioners, and soon this compelling story heads in a surprising direction. The Overnighters exposes so many complicated levels of the human condition that you’ll exit the theater wrestling with issues that extend far beyond fracking.