Movies often earn accolades for breaking genre conventions. It can be just as impressive when a movie works while following a specific set of expectations.

“Hell or High Water,” a neo-Western thriller from director David Mackenzie (“Starred Up”), contains familiar elements from bank heist and road movie sub-genres. Because of its storytelling precision, the film never once feels familiar. The characters, setting and plot stitch together so seamlessly the conventions utilized seem destined. The story goes where it must.

Chris Pine gives a career-best performance as a divorced, unemployed West Texas father who plots a series of bank heists with his ex-con brother (Ben Foster, in typically intense form). The film opens with their first job — the two brothers confront a small town bank teller as she opens the branch for business, but the employee doesn’t have access to the money until her manager arrives for work.

Despite this first-crime hiccup, the brothers have a particularly cunning plan to avoid capture, and their reasons for stealing are compelling enough to inspire a certain level of sympathy. Foster’s character, however, boils with untapped rage, his love for his brother the only thing keeping him from falling back into a history of violence.

Mackenzie and screenwriter Taylor Sheridan (author of last year’s excellent cartel thriller, “Sicario”) craft “Hell or High Water” with an abundance of compelling details. The photography of decrepit small-town Texas and the specificity of how supporting characters look and speak instill just enough thematic undertones, especially in the film’s depiction of lower-class dynamics.

The film runs on high intensity, despite a consistent stream of levity. Much of the humor stems from Jeff Bridges as a loose-lipped Texas Ranger on the verge of retirement. A more-than-competent investigator, Bridges’ lawman works the case with sometimes unnecessary vigor, all while frustrating his partner (Gil Birmingham, a quiet standout) with folksy conversation and casual racism. It’s a part tailored for Bridges – think “True Grit’s” Rooster Cogburn thrust into the modern era — and completely delightful to watch.

There’s also something inherently humorous about the way the brothers repeatedly encounter Texas-style vigilantism. It’s not the Texas Rangers they have to worry about so much as the fearless bank patrons and fellas on the street just itching to utilize their concealed carry permits. It’s an atmosphere that feels simultaneously modern and Old West.

These dryly comedic elements distract from where “Hell or High Water” must eventually lead. Even though we’re meant to like both sets of characters, the story propels them into direct, violent conflict. The final 30 minutes, which definitely leans hard into genre expectations, nevertheless strikes with precision. Then the film quiets down for the final scene — a dialogue-driven sequence that brings every detail of the film back into perspective.

Many reviews of “Hell or High Water” compare it to the Coen Brothers’ Oscar-winner, “No Country for Old Men,” and the similarities are certainly there. Where “No Country” veers away from convention, “High Water” almost leans into them just to prove how well they can work within proper detail and context.

“No Country” deserves its title as a masterful neo-Western/American Crime Story, for numerous reasons. While “Hell or High Water” probably won’t reach the same level of adoration, it deserves to be in that conversation.

“Hell or High Water” opens today in Coeur d’Alene.

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Tyler Wilson can be reached at twilson@cdapress.com.