New on video: ‘Hell or High Water’ is both entertaining and enlightening, plus more new releases

New on Blu-ray

“Hell or High Water” (Lionsgate DVD/Blu-ray combo, $39.99; also available on VOD)

One of 2016’s most welcome surprises — and a left-field hit to boot — the modern western “Hell or High Water” tells a distinctly Texan story, which is unexpected given that it was directed by a Scotsman, David Mackenzie. Give credit to screenwriter Taylor Sheridan and to an outstanding cast that includes Chris Pine and Ben Foster as two brothers on a cross-state bank-robbing spree, and Jeff Bridges as a retiring Texas Ranger trying to anticipate their next move. The film has echoes of the Oscar-winning “No Country for Old Men,” but it’s less mythic, instead dealing with the repercussions of real-world financial crises and decaying public institutions. At times funny, at times poetic and always haunted by the specter of tragedy, “Hell or High Water” is an entertaining throwback, elevated by its commentary on life in the early 21st century.

[Special features: A handful of featurettes]

VOD

“Evolution” (available Nov. 25)

French art-film director Lucile Hadžihalilović belatedly follows up her beguiling 2004 feature debut “Innocence” with the equally nightmarish “Evolution,” an exercise in experimental horror about an oceanfront community where sickly pale women raise and exploit young boys. Though not entirely plotless, “Evolution” is less about telling a comprehensible story and more about exhibiting a strange primal pull, through memorable images of slime, grime and gender-bending. With its lulling soundtrack and eruptions of shocking body-horror, the movie aims straight for the subconscious.

TV set of the week

“The DePatie-Freleng Collection” (Kino DVD, $49.95; Blu-ray, $79.95)

Anyone who grew up watching weekday afternoon syndicated cartoon packages on UHF channels in the ’70s and ’80s should be familiar with some of the shorts on “The DePatie-Freleng Collection.” With discs dedicated to the characters “The Inspector” (based on “The Pink Panther” movies’ bumbling Inspector Clouseau), “Roland and Ratfink” (an exaggerated riff on good and evil), “The Ant and the Aardvark” (a Tom and Jerry knockoff with John Byner imitating his favorite Vegas stars) and “Tijuana Toads” (a wildly inappropriate example of vintage ethnic humor), the set collects some of the most memorable ephemera from the same company that produced “The Pink Panther Show.”

[Special features: Commentary tracks on multiple cartoons and a strong batch of featurettes aimed at animation buffs]

From the archives

“To Live and Die in L.A.: Special Edition” (Shout Select Blu-ray, $34.93)

When William Friedkin’s punchy, ultraviolent cop picture “To Live and Die in L.A.” was released in 1985, it was largely dismissed as a minor effort from the man who once made the Oscar-winning policier “The French Connection.” But with hindsight, Friedkin’s ’80s Los Angeles counterpart to his gritty ’70s New York classic is its own kind of masterpiece. It’s a pointed look at the decade’s “counterfeit” culture, following two ethically shaky federal agents (played by William Petersen and John Pankow) who break the law in order to raise money for a case against a master crook (Willem Dafoe). As obsessed with the details of crime as it is with blood-spurting shootouts, “To Live and Die in L.A.” is both action-packed and slyly pointed in its evocation of Reagan-era amorality.

[Special features: A Friedkin commentary, new and old interviews, and a laughably bad alternate ending]

Three more to see

“Hands of Stone” (Anchor Bay DVD, $29.98; Blu-ray, $34.99; also available on VOD); “Kubo and the Two Strings” (Universal DVD, $29.98; Blu-ray, $34.98; 3-D, $44.98; also available on VOD); “War Dogs” (Warner Bros. DVD, $28.98; Blu-ray, $29.98; 4K, $44.95; also available on VOD)