7 Best Movies to Watch on The Criterion Channel Right Now (April 2026): ‘Michael Clayton’ and More

Michael Clayton (George Clooney) works as a fixer for a prestigious law firm in New York City, and he gets pulled into a mess with far-reaching consequences when one of his firm’s best litigators, Arthur Edens (Tom Wilkinson), suffers a manic episode while representing a corrupt chemical company. Michael learns that Arthur’s breakdown was orchestrated to jeopardize his own case, increasingly undone by the wrongdoing he’s helped cover up. Michael suddenly finds himself torn between appeasing his clients and paying off his debts,and doing what’s right.

Directed and written by Andor showrunner Tony Gilroy, Michael Clayton is a cinematic masterclass — a perfect confluence of sharp tension, engrossing drama, top-notch acting and commanding direction. The film manages to combine pulse-pounding melodrama with a realistic narrative that only feels more true-to-life in the years since its release. The terrific cast also includes Tilda Swinton, Sydney Pollack and Merritt Wever.

Yeast is a film about all of the worst people you know when you’re in your twenties. When devil-may-care Gen (Greta Gerwig) arrives at Rachel’s (Mary Bronstein) Brooklyn apartment to take her on a camping trip, Rachel becomes increasingly impatient with Gen’s irreverent behavior over the course of the trip.

After a contentious final day together, the two women return home, where Rachel discovers her roommate Alice’s (Amy Judd) boyfriend (Sean Price Williams) in her bed. But while Rachel once seemed like the voice of reason, she quickly becomes just another terrible personality as she spends most of her time berating Alice.

Nearly two decades before Bronstein directed the Oscar-nominated If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, she helmed this very independent mumblecore film from 2008 shot entirely on a MiniDV camcorder. Utilizing the same kind of claustrophobic closeups seen in Legs, Yeast is equally as exasperating as Bronstein’s sophomore film, if not more (yet somehow in the best way), in this movie that deftly explores the chaotic and maddening nightmare of young adulthood friendship.

After graduating from film school, Aura (Lena Dunham) finds herself adrift and directionless. She moves back in with her artist mother (Laurie Simmons) and her sister Nadine (Cyrus Grace Dunham) in their Tribeca loft, and takes up a job taking down reservations at a restaurant while she figures out her career. In this moment of situational purgatory, she reconnects with a childhood friend (Jemima Kirke) and explores relationships with men, including an internet star (Alex Karpovsky) and the chef at her job (David Call).

Dunham writes and directs this indie dramedy, a precursor to her smash-hit HBO series Girls, which would go on to feature both Kirke and Karpovsky in significant roles. Tiny Furniture showcases Dunham’s confident, creative voice even in her directorial debut, treading the familiar ground of a failure-to-launch young woman with a unique touch and richly textured characters. The film is a refreshingly unromanticized portrait of post-college life and the struggle to invent oneself.

Using over 100 hours of personal video footage shot by Timothy Treadwell himself, Grizzly Man chronicles Treadwell’s attempt to bridge the gap between man and beast. Werner Herzog uses Treadwell’s own footage (alongside Herzog’s narration) to paint a portrait of a misguided if devoted man who felt called to live in the Alaskan wilderness alongside deadly predators, until one bear, whom Treadwell had acquainted himself with, killed him and his girlfriend in 2003.

In addition to archival footage and narration, Herzog also includes a number of interviews with people who knew or were involved with Treadwell to gain a deeper understanding of who Treadwell was and what drove him to this path. Widely acclaimed by critics, Grizzly Man is a profound, moving and tragic story of the folly of one man, and what it can say about humanity as a whole.

Starring French actress Isabelle Adjani (The Perfect Couple) and Sam Neill (Jurassic Park), Possession is an English-language film helmed by Polish director Andrzej Żuławski. A twisty, disorienting horror drama, the film was notorious upon its release for being dubbed a “video nasty” in England. It was subsequently banned in the U.K., while being heavily edited to 81 minutes for its American release, losing a full third of its runtime.

A contorted look at a deteriorating relationship between an international spy (Neill) and his wife (Adjani), the latter of whom asks her husband for a divorce. In the aftermath, the wife begins exhibiting increasingly disturbing behavior, as both partners slowly seem to lose their sanity. The film is a maddeningly unhinged work of psychological and fantastical terror, as well as a dynamite acting showcase for both Neill and Adjani.

Minimalist director Kelly Reichardt weaves an affecting portrait of four unconnected women living in the American Northwest. Starring Laura Dern, Michelle Williams, Kristen Stewart and Lily Gladstone, Certain Women is broken up into sections and based on a collection of short stories by Maile Meloy. It centers chiefly on the characters played by Dern, Williams and Stewart, each attempting, in their own way, to build their own ordinary lives.

Deeply empathetic and engrossing, Certain Women is a slow-burn that mesmerizes with its careful pacing and attention to detail. At the same time, its characters are rich yet understated, portrayed with care by all four actresses. It is difficult to watch the film and not see a little bit of oneself in each character, as scenarios depicted are specific yet universal. Certain Women warmly showcases the bittersweet, beautiful melancholy of life.

27-year-old dancer Frances (Greta Gerwig) is an apprentice at a dance company, but doesn’t really know what she’s doing. She struggles to make ends meet living in New York City — and struggles to have an apartment to live in, period. Navigating professional and personal setbacks, Frances tries to embrace the terrifying and wonderful possibilities of young adulthood.

Director Noah Baumbach‘s seminal adult coming-of-age comedy is captivating, full of life and a bit maddening, just like its titular protagonist. The spirit of the film captures the spirit of youth, but it doesn’t shy away from depicting the hardships that come with forging friendships, setting out on one’s own, and searching for success and happiness.