Someone leveled the descriptor "film geek" at me recently, and after offering up a truly lame defense my initial squawks of protest gave way to hushed snarls of acceptance. What separates a film geek from a casual moviegoer is a deeper knowledge of the relatively useless factoids surrounding a production, one that goes beyond mere movie stars to include everyone who works long hours to make a film great, tolerable, or two hours of your life that you will never, ever get back.

Now, maybe you share my former distaste for the term "film geek," but is it really that insulting? Almost everyone loves movies (except puppy-kickers and grandma-punchers), plus there are tasty snacks to be had, and of all the poindexters, film geeks get the most quality tail. Granted, that last claim isn't based in any sort of scientific fact, but it's probably true.

Summer is actually the perfect time to ease your way into film geekdom, and focusing on the directors is the smart place to start. And... action! (Yeah... that may have crossed some sort of nerd boundary. Just read on, please.)

"Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen"

Director: Michael Bay

Oh, lose the attitude. No one's saying that Michael Bay is the next Ingmar Bergman, or that there's even the teeny-tiniest chance that he'll have to prepare an Academy Award speech during his lifetime. But for every piece of dopey swill like 1998's "Armageddon," there's totally fun swill like 2007's "Transformers." The sequel looks to be more of the same, but faster, louder, and Megan Fox-ier. (6/24)

"Away We Go"

Director: Sam Mendes

Winner of the Best Director Oscar for 1999's "American Beauty," Sam Mendes, in collaboration with the gifted writing (and real-life) partnership of Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida, quietly plunk this bittersweet indie smack-dab into the middle of the splashy summer movie season. It stars John Krasinski (NBC's "The Office") and SNL alum Maya Rudolph as expectant parents road-tripping around the country in search of a place to start their family. Quirky adventures ensue. (6/26)

"My Sister's Keeper"

Director: Nick Cassavetes

His pedigree is an edgy one (Dad is the late John Cassavetes, Mom is Gena Rowlands), but Nick Cassavetes sure has a way with the weepers; you know this if you still secretly YouTube the rainy, romantic "It's still not over!" scene from 2004's "The Notebook." His latest, an adaptation of Jodi Picoult's novel, stars Cameron Diaz, Jason Patric (welcome back!), and Abigail Breslin as a girl who sues for medical emancipation from her parents after a lifetime of donating marrow to her leukemia-stricken sister. Even the trailer is devastating.(6/26)

"Chéri"

Director: Stephen Frears

Stephen Frears' impressive filmography includes Oscar nominations for 1990's "The Grifters" and 2006's "The Queen," but he's probably best known by Gen Xers for his deft 2000 Americanization of Nick Hornby's "High Fidelity." He reteams with his "Dangerous Liaisons" writer Christopher Hampton and star Michelle Pfeiffer for this adaptation of a Colette novel about a retired, aging courtesan and her young lover, now betrothed to someone more suitable for him and less entertaining for us. (6/26)

"Public Enemies"

Director: Michael Mann

What do Daniel Day-Lewis, Robert DeNiro, Al Pacino, Russell Crowe, and Jamie Foxx all have in common? OK, besides Academy Awards? They've all been directed by Michael Mann, whose newest film stars Johnny Depp as John Dillinger in the big-screen version of Bryan Burrough's absorbing nonfiction, titled "Public Enemies: America's Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-34." Plus there's Christian Bale, Oscar winner Marion Cotillard, and Billy Crudup as J. Edgar Hoover! Save your cross-dressing jokes, please. (7/1)

"Whatever Works"

Director: Woody Allen

Though he actually has but one Oscar for directing (1977's "Annie Hall"), even the least dweeby of film geeks is familiar with the oeuvre of Woody Allen, mostly because he's been cranking out one movie a year for the last six centuries, give or take 557 years. His latest is a comedy spawned from a marriage made in neurotic heaven: Larry David ("Curb Your Enthusiasm") stars as a cranky, eccentric New Yorker who gets entangled with a young Southern woman (Evan Rachel Wood) and her weirdo family. (7/3)

"Brüno"

Director: Larry Charles

Until the success of 2006's "Borat," Larry Charles was known mostly for his script contributions on "Seinfeld," and now Charles and comedy mastermind Sacha Baron Cohen have reunited to bring another of Cohen's characters to life. Brüno - you may remember him from HBO's "Da Ali G Show" - is a flamboyant Austrian TV host who brings his show to America in this mockumentary, which once again finds Cohen bamboozling people like Ron Paul and popping up at unlikely events. It should shock exactly no one that "Brüno" is being edited down from an NC-17. (7/10)

"Funny People"

Director: Judd Apatow

Judd Apatow's hipster cred was already cemented thanks to writing gigs on TV's "Freaks and Geeks" and "Undeclared" when he made his filmmaking debut with 2005's "The 40-Year-Old Virgin." His follow-up to 2007's "Knocked Up" stars Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen, and Leslie Mann in a comedy about a self-involved comedian with a terminal blood disorder (?!) who takes an aspiring and equally friendless performer under his wing. "Funny People" also features Jonah Hill ("Superbad"), who might be the most hilarious person in America. Discuss. (7/31)

"Julie & Julia"

Director: Nora Ephron

She's better known for her Oscar-nominated scripts (1989's "When Harry Met Sally..." and 1993's "Sleepless in Seattle"), but Nora Ephron's version of "Julie & Julia," starring the "Doubt" duo of Amy Adams and Meryl Streep, finds her handling both writing and helming duties. And rather than just a straight-up adaptation of Julie Powell's bestseller about her year spent wrestling with Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking," Ephron also incorporates part of Child's memoir "My Life in France," which chronicles the beginning of her lifelong affair with cooking. (8/7)

"G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra"

Director: Stephen Sommers

Now that you're well on your way to geek standing, you should know that not everyone will be subscribing to your learned-ish yet passionate views on film. My blind adoration for Stephen Sommers' 1999 "Mummy" revamp, for instance, is often greeted with overt disgust, and his latest looks to be an equally corny romp. Dennis Quaid leads an eclectic international cast in "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra," which assembles that famous cadre of operatives ("When all else fails, we don't"), here protecting the world from an arms dealer who is almost certainly quite evil. (8/7)

"Shorts"

Director: Robert Rodriguez

Continuing his versatile careen between bloody adult flicks (2005's "Sin City") and clever family fare (the "Spy Kids" trilogy), writer-director Robert Rodriguez follows up his "Planet Terror" half of "Grindhouse" with what he's describing as "‘Pulp Fiction' for kids." Jon Cryer, William H. Macy, and James Spader star in this collection of intertwined vignettes about a wish-granting rock that drops into a Texas neighborhood and causes problems among both the curious children and the greedy grownups. (8/7)

"Ponyo"

Director: Hayao Miyazaki

The foremost anime filmmaker in the world, Hayao Miyazaki has garnered critical acclaim for works like 1997's gorgeous "Princess Mononoke" and 2004's Oscar winner "Howl's Moving Castle," and with Disney in his corner for "Ponyo," box-office success might be next. Liam Neeson, Tina Fey, and Matt Damon lead a stellar voice cast in this fantasy-adventure tale of young Ponyo (Frankie Jonas) and a goldfish princess (Noah Lindsey Cyrus) who longs to be human. (8/7)

"Taking Woodstock"

Director: Ang Lee

The impossible-to-pigeonhole Ang Lee has tackled Jane Austen (1995's "Sense and Sensibility"), the Civil War (1999's "Ride with the Devil"), angry green men (2003's "Hulk"), and taboo relationships (2005's "Brokeback Mountain"). Demetri Martin, Liev Schreiber, and Imelda Staunton star in "Taking Woodstock," which goes down in the Summer of Love and tells the true story of Elliot Tiber, who didn't set out to define a generation, but his motel-owner parents just happened to hold the only music festival permit in Bethel, NY. (8/7)

"Inglourious Basterds"

Director: Quentin Tarantino

And sometimes film geeks actually get off their asses and make films themselves. QT isn't shy about showing off his mastery of cinematic trivia, his award-winning movies are all homages to everything he ever learned while slinging videotapes. Tarantino's latest is a violent WWII epic starring Brad Pitt as the leader of a group of Jewish-American soldiers in occupied France on a mission to scalp and kill Nazis. Narrated by Samuel L. Jackson, of course. (8/21)

Two quick warnings: Unchecked film geekery may cause your sunless skin to turn a sublime shade of paste, and release dates are subject to change.