Pick of the Day: A Serious Man

Following their triumph with No Country for Old Men the Coen Brothers return to their roots with this quirky comedy that mines their own mid-Western Jewish upbringing for inspiration. Set in 1967, the film stars Michael Stuhlbarg as a physics prof named Larry Gopnik who struggles to cope when his comfortable middle-class existence begins to crumble like an asteroid being torn apart by cetrifugal force as it spins ever faster in outer space to extend the physics metaphor -- which the Coens doubtlessly use to great effect in exploring questions of faith, morality and family responsibility.

A Serious Man plays tonight at the RPL at 7 p.m. Here's the trailer. (YouTube)

And if you're in the mood for a double-bll Amreeka screens at 9 p.m. Directed by Cherien Dabis, it chronicles the adventures of a single mother named Mona (Nisreen Faour) who journeys with her son from the West Bank to the promised land of America (small town Illinois, to be precise). Here's the trailer (YouTube)