Review: No objections to Jamie Foxx in the entertaining courtroom drama 'The Burial'

With a fresh Supreme Court term and an ex-president's fraud trial under way, it seems worth noting that we are living through an unexpectedly rich moment for courtroom dramas on-screen as well as off. Some of the strongest have made a virtue of ambiguity: "The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial," now airing on Showtime, gives a fresh contemporary reading to a 70-year-old military melodrama, updating the setting but keeping its strict trial protocols and disquieting conclusions intact. This week also brings the unruly testimonies of "Anatomy of a Fall," a knotty psychological thriller that, like last year's rigorously nuanced "Saint Omer," discovers procedural intrigue and moral uncertainty within the French legal system.

Those seeking more traditionally rousing courtroom entertainment will certainly find it in Maggie Betts' bursting by Jonathan Harr, it tells the story of Jeremiah "Jerry" O'Keefe (Tommy Lee Jones), a small-town Mississippi funeral home owner who in 1995 sued the Canadian billionaire Ray Loewen (Bill Camp) over a contract dispute that swiftly snowballed into something more. At first glance, you couldn't ask for a more obviously crowd-pleasing setup: an honest plaintiff and a hissable defendant, their pitched legal battle set to the creakily satisfying music of pounded gavels, overruled objections and full-throated lawyerly speechifying.