His big screen studio debut, Superbad, made huge bank, but anyone who ever saw Greg Mottola’s The Daytrippers can attest to his skill with less broadly observed humiliation, and this spring’s Adventureland marks his return to auteurish roots — his first writing credit since his 1996 debut. The trailer is up online, and color me pleasantly engaged, and leaning forward a bit, for now.

I detest have a negative gut reaction to star Jesse Eisenberg in ways that I can’t fully explain — it’s just something about his face — but his presence alone hasn’t, in the past, stopped me from enjoying movies he’s been in, and I acknowledge that he’s not without good shoegazing, dweeby wallflower comic timing. Kristen Stewart is a sweetheart, and just the right sort of fit for this type of film, especially before multiple Twilight sequels forces her into more yawning, conventional films, roles, clothes, attitudes, etcetera. Having Ryan Reynolds on board for some disapproving-mentor-comedy certainly doesn’t hurt either, and SNL-ers Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig look to actually have somewhat fleshed out characters to play around with, which must come as a joint relief to them as they serve their mandatory five- to seven-year big screen apprenticeships.

It works because we’ve all had shitty jobs that we felt a bit too big for, and the period detail, if maybe a bit twee and Juno-ish, looks faithfully of a piece, and also because so much of the comedy seems rooted in circumstance, and reality — the notion of saving up five-minute bathroom breaks, for instance. And don’t diss the hurled corndog. As someone who once had a taco thrown at them, I can tell you that food-based assaults are more common than you might think. Adventureland opens March 27, from Miramax.