The Coen Brothers head straight back to their roots with their latest outing, “A Serious Man.” It’s both blackly nostalgic — the Coens grew up in a Minnesota suburb like the one where the film is set — and bleakly funny — the closest cousin to “A Serious Man” in the Coens’ filmography is 1991’s “Barton Fink.”

Those who loved that film will thrill in the surreally tinged hilarious misery that the Coens inflict in their latest; fans more acquainted with the Brothers’ less substantial “Burn After Reading” or “Intolerable Cruelty” will likely be supremely puzzled or disgusted, probably both.

Working with a cast of familiar faces with hard-to-recall names, the Coens tell the 1960’s-set tale of Larry Gopnik (stage actor Michael Stuhlbarg), a hardworking physics professor whose life is eroding beneath him.

His wife, Judith (Sari Lennick) announces her intentions to leave him for family friend Sy Abelman (Fred Adelman). Larry’s primary consoler? Sy, who’s all too eager to embrace Larry in soothing bear hugs while simultaneously stealing his wife.

Larry’s two adolescent kids — Danny and Sarah (Aaron Wolff, Jessica McManus) — couldn’t care less about the impending divorce. He’s more interested in avoiding his unpaid pot dealer and watching “F Troop,” and she’s lifting cash from Larry’s wallet to buy a nose job.

Larry’s also got a freeloading brother, Arthur (wonderful character actor Richard Kind) who’s either in the bathroom draining a sebaceous cyst from his neck or spending time in questionable bars.

Larry has tenure to look forward to, but even that’s uncertain with a of anonymous letters libeling his character streaming into the tenure committee. A student (David Kang) first tries to bribe him for a better test grade, then blackmail him. A sexy neighbor (Amy Landecker) sunbathes in the nude, and her enticement screams danger.

“A Serious Man” is a profound piece of work, and it explores the roles of fate and God in a man’s life in a fascinating, yet inconclusive way. Larry’s like the biblical Job, surrounded by inexplicable chaos. He doesn’t get much assistance from the people around him either — Job’s friends told him it was his own fault; Larry seeks the counsel of three rabbis who aren’t nearly as helpful as he’d like.

Of course, “A Serious Man” is also tremendously funny in its painfulness, and the Coens’ ability to extract humor in a thoroughly unique way is enough evidence to cement their status as some of the most important American auteurs in film today. Their humor is not like the Judd Apatow school of dick jokes, nor like the more human-focused neuroticism of Woody Allen. It’s not physical comedy or snappy witticisms or even morbid black humor.

Perhaps the best way to describe it is encapsulated in this film’s trailer — a brilliantly edited crackerjack scored to the pounding of a man’s head against the wall. Now that’s Coen funny.

“A Serious Man,” which is beautifully photographed by longtime Coen collaborator Roger Deakins, is a rich film that will pay long-lasting dividends as audiences return to it again and again. It deserves it, and it requires it.