‘Midnight Special,’ ‘Fantastic Planet’ and more home theater releases out this week

New on Blu-ray

“Midnight Special” (Warner Bros. DVD, $29.98; Blu-ray, $29.98; also available on VOD)

Acclaimed indie filmmaker Jeff Nichols tries something a little different for his latest, “Midnight Special,” a supernatural drama about a man on the run with a son who has strange powers. Though inspired by ’80s science-fiction cinema classics like “E.T.” and “Starman,” Nichols’ film is unmistakably the artful, poetic work of the man who made “Mud” and “Take Shelter,” right down to its lead performance by the director’s frequent collaborator, Michael Shannon. “Midnight Special” favors realism over sensationalism, and while audiences expecting genre thrills may be disappointed by how muted this movie is, it’s so sincere and at times profound that it’s sure to linger as long in the culture as the pictures it recalls.

[Special features: A handful of character-focused featurettes]

VOD

“The Phenom” (available June 24)

Johnny Simmons and Ethan Hawke in “The Phenom.” (Tina Rowden/RLJ Entertainment)

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Writer-director Noah Buschel’s baseball drama “The Phenom” has no on-field action to speak of, but it’s still one of the smarter sports films in recent years: a masterfully acted, genuinely insightful look at the pressures of trying to go pro. Johnny Simmons plays a hot young pitcher who gets demoted to the minors after a case of the yips, and ends up in sessions with a legendary psychologist (Paul Giamatti) where he talks about his abusive ex-con father (Ethan Hawke). Driven mostly by dialogue — and sometimes overwritten, frankly — “The Phenom” nonetheless paints a vivid picture of one star athlete struggling with what it means to be a winner in a culture where fans and media can’t look back much further than yesterday.

TV set of the week

“The Hollow Crown: The Wars of the Roses” (Universal DVD, $49.98; Blu-ray, $49.98)

In 2012, the BBC gave Shakespeare a jolt with “The Hollow Crown,” a set of adaptations of the Bard’s history plays featuring some of the top acting talent in Great Britain. The 2016 sequel “The Wars of the Roses” completes the cycle with “Henry VI” and “Richard III,” starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Sophie Okonedo, Judi Dench, Sally Hawkins and Hugh Bonneville. Taken as a whole, the project treats Shakespeare’s royal histories as one long, epic saga, as dramatic and full of violent conflict as any prestige cable show.

[Special features: Deleted scenes for each installment; a making-of featurette]

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From the archives

“Fantastic Planet” (Criterion, $29.95; Blu-ray, $39.95)

The landmark 1973 animated feature “Fantastic Planet” arrived in an era when Disney was on the decline and underground comics and midnight movies were on the rise. But while it failed to inspire a wave of similarly adult cartoons, this visionary science-fiction film has been a cult favorite ever since. Animator René Laloux and illustrator Roland Topor took full advantage of the possibilities of their medium in adapting Stefan Wul’s far-out fantasy novel, telling a story about tiny humans and the giant blue aliens that enslave them. Between the funky Alain Goraguer soundtrack, the sexy outfits, the surreal landscapes and the heavily metaphorical plot, “Fantastic Planet” still looks and sounds unlike anything else, either in animation or in sci-fi.

[Special features: Interviews; vintage documentaries about Laloux and Topor; early short films by the pair]

Three more to see

Christian Bale and Natalie Portman in “Knight of Cups.” (Melinda Sue Gordon / Broad Green Pictures)

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“Embrace of the Serpent” (Oscilloscope DVD, $34.99; Blu-ray, $39.99; also available on VOD); “Knight of Cups” (Broad Green DVD, $26.99; Blu-ray, $29.99; also available on VOD); “The Wave” (Magnolia DVD, $26.97; Blu-ray, $29.97)