Along with Sundance in January, Berlin in February and Cannes in May, the fall festival trifecta of Venice, Telluride and Toronto almost invariably yields many of the films destined to keep percolating in the conversation from critics’ group awards in December all the way to the Oscars mid-March. This year’s crop was way lighter than usual on major contenders, but The Hollywood Reporter’s hard-working reviews team nonetheless found plenty to love. Five of our top 13 picks are documentaries, with subjects as varied as the resistance of independent journalism in Putin’s Russia; an iconoclast of British queer cinema; a devastating new…
