An American Affair (Screen Media)
Odd coming-of-age tale, set in 1963 Washington, about a 13-year-old Catholic schoolboy (Cameron Bright) who spies on, and becomes obsessed with, a free-spirited artist (Gretchen Mol) who lives in his neighborhood, despite being warned against her by his otherwise indifferent parents (Perrey Reeves and Noah Wyle). Director William Sten Olsson's cliche-ridden feature debut, which promotes wayward values while trashing nuns and parochial education, clumsily attempts to graft Camelot-era historical events --- the painter is one of President Kennedy's mistresses and the ex-wife of a CIA agent (Mark Pellegrino) --- onto a personal narrative of adolescent sexual yearning and aspirations for independence. Brief graphic adulterous sexual activity, masturbation, voyeurism, upper female nudity, a pornographic image, some rough and crude language, and a couple of uses of profanity. (O, R)

Watchmen (Warner Bros./Paramount)
Darkly ironic and exceedingly violent fantasy action tale --- set in a dystopian alternate version of 1985 America --- in which a lawman turned masked vigilante (Jackie Earle Haley) investigates the murder of a former colleague (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and uncovers a plot to kill off all the members of the self-appointed posse (Malin Akerman, Patrick Wilson and Matthew Goode, among others) to which they once both belonged. Director Zack Snyder wields grand-scale production values and occasionally intriguing special effects in his overlong adaptation of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon's landmark graphic novel, which also features Billy Crudup as a clothes-eschewing giant, but the circuitous proceedings lead from one bone-crunching or limb-baring encounter to another and cynically peddle moral ambiguity tricked out as sophistication. Graphic action violence, strong sexual content including graphic nonmarital activity and attempted rape, full nudity, at least a dozen uses of the F-word and of profanity, and some crude language and sexual humor. (O, R)

---CNS USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classifications: A-I --- general patronage; A-II --- adults and adolescents; A-III --- adults; L --- limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling; O --- morally offensive.