Friday’s theatrical release of the Coen brothers’ ’50s-Hollywood romp “Hail, Caesar!’’ isn’t the week’s only opportunity to catch them riffing on the cultural tones of yesteryear, a knack they’ve been entertaining us with since “Miller’s Crossing’’ and “Barton Fink.’’ While Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks naturally are the top-billed talents on the engrossing Cold War drama “Bridge of Spies’’ (2015), the Coens’s contributions to writer Matt Charman’s initial screenplay were apparently fairly key. (The script earned an Oscar nod — in the Coens’s case, their sixth for writing and first for another director’s film.) Hanks plays historical footnote James B. Donovan, a New York lawyer who diligently handles his thankless assignment to defend Soviet operative Rudolf Abel (Oscar-nominated Mark Rylance), then equally resolutely negotiates Abel’s exchange for captured US spy-plane pilot Gary Powers. The DVD’s featurettes make diplomatically brief mention of the Coens’s revisions, with a producer noting, “They really brought Tom’s personality into [Donovan’s] story.’’ Part of the interest in watching on disc, then, is taking extra time to try to spot the Coen-isms. We’ll guess one is Donovan’s drily witty response to being handed Abel’s case: “Great — everyone will hate me, but at least I’ll lose.’’ Then there’s the absurdity that Hanks’s character encounters among the East Berlin intelligence community, which faintly recalls the espionage-themed antics in “Burn After Reading.’’ And is the Coen ear for period dialogue behind Donovan exclaiming “Hot dog!’’ over one negotiating victory? If so, they sure do get Hanks’s persona — right down to the Jimmy Stewart flourishes. (DreamWorks, $29.99; Blu-ray, $39.99)
HISTORICAL DRAMA
SUFFRAGETTE (2015)
Carey Mulligan plays a young laundress swept up in the fight for equality in early-20th-century Britain. In the process, she’s inspired by real-life outlaw activist Emmeline Pankhurst (Meryl Streep) and aligned with the likes of Helena Bonham Carter’s bomb-making radical. Just a tad grittier than the view we’ve gotten from, say, Sybil and Edith dabbling with the cause on “Downton Abbey.’’ Extras: featurettes; commentary by director Sarah Gavron and writer Abi Morgan (“The Iron Lady,’’ the Dickens biopic “The Invisible Woman’’). (Universal, $29.98; Blu-ray, $34.98)
COMEDY/DRAMA
OUR BRAND IS CRISIS (2015)
Guess this week it’s all political turmoil, all the time. In a fictionalized version of Rachel Boynton’s 2005 documentary of the same title, Sandra Bullock stars as a burned-out consultant recruited to help a crooked Bolivian presidential candidate jump-start his campaign. Meanwhile, her James Carville-channeling longtime rival (Billy Bob Thornton) tries to do the same for the opposition. Not nearly as sharp as it could have been — something you can surmise easily enough from the lone, skimpy featurette. Directed by David Gordon Green (“Pineapple Express’’). (Warner, $28.98; Blu-ray, $29.98)
Titles are in stores Tuesday. Tom Russo can be reached at trusso2222@gmail.com.
