I think John Curran’s masterful “Chappaquiddick” was shown once in Toronto for a handful of critics and distributors. Byron Allen was very smart to pick it up for his new Entertainment Studios Motion Pictures company–it’s going to be a big hit. What he could never have predicted back in September that by now the movie would have a whole new layer of meaning: Mary Jo Kopechne, left to drown in the waters of Martha’s Vineyard in July 1969, was the first #MeToo victim. Her death, suggested here as caused by the late Senator Edward Kennedy, is the paradigm for everything being discussed today.

Curran has made a couple of movies I really liked– “Tracks” with Mia Wasikowska and Adam Driver, and “We Don’t Live Here Anymore” with Mark Ruffalo and Marisa Tomei. He’s Australian and almost 60, so his sensibility is outsider and his interests would be the Kennedys and how power corrupts. The Australian part is lucky because he’s brought Jason Clarke along as Ted Kennedy, and it’s a powerful performance that should put him on early awards lists. Clarke was borbn to play Teddy as it turns out.

“Chappaquiddick” refers to a scandal that in hindsight is stunning that it didn’t end Kennedy’s political career– or put him in jail. Let’s say you’re a fan of Kennedy for everything but this episode. Still, on a boozy summer night — the same weekend that Neil Armstrong walked on the moon–a married but philandering Teddy drove his car off the Chappaquiddick bridge with Mary Jo Kopechne (astute performance by Kate Mara, she’s excellent), a young secretary who’d worked for his late brother Bobby, at his side.

Were they screwing, or just driving around, drinking, having a grand time? No one knows. But the car went into the water and turned upside down. Teddy escaped and did not try to save Mary Jo. He return to the party house where he and friends had been whooping it up, found two of his sycophants (Ed Helms and Jim Gaffigan), brought them back to the scene of the accident. By then, Mary Jo had certainly died.

They never reported the accident. Instead, they created massive cover up that presaged Watergate. The car and Mary Jo were discovered the next morning by passersby. Curran peels the cover up like an orange, and it’s beautiful to watch. Clarke portrays Teddy so ambiguously you almost can’t tell if he’s calculating, stupid, just a lost man child. The result is you can’t take your eyes off of him. Teddy’s scenes with his father– Joe Kennedy after a stroke, wheelchair bound, wordless perfection from Bruce Dern–are riveting.

The Kennedys will not be happy. They may try to kill this film. (In 40 years no one has even tried to tell this story accurately.) Allen will have to present quite a PR front and solid distribution. This isn’t a tabloid story. Curran is damn serious.  If Mary Jo as #MeToo victim takes off, the movie will click. This really happened. Ted Kennedy–using his brothers’ assassinations for sympathy–convinced the world that he just didn’t know what happened to this beautiful, smart young woman. “Chappaquiddick” is quite stunning.

Release date is April 6th. More to come, oh yes, when we get closer…

You really have to like someone to trek all the way to the South Street Seaport to see their movie. I actually forgot the Seaport was still there– what happened to it, it was such a rocking spot in the early 1990s?

Anyway, lots of people put on their GPS and found the iPic Theater on Fulton Street next to what used to be the Fulton Fish Market before Rudy Giuliani kicked out the mob and the Gap came in. The mob is now very missed. But the iPic has comfortable seats and tasty popcorn, so that’s something.

We came for Cuba Gooding Jr.’s directorial debut, “Louisiana Caviar,” in which he plays a former boxer who gets caught up in a very shady deal involving Richard Dreyfus. The glorious Famke Janssen has a knockout performance as a kind of punk lesbian photographer. She sports a short black wig and very convincing tattoos that are, thank god, all fakes. (“American Idol” star and David Foster squeeze Katherine McPhee is her lover and looks swell.)

New York’s favorite local actor, Greg Bello, acquits himself beautifully as an Orthodox Jew who gets scammed by everyone including hot newcomer Lia Marie Johnson, who is Capitol Records’ next Big Thing.

The whole thing was shot for $3.5 million in 18 days with a gorgeous palette from DP Wedigo von Schultzendorff, who gives New Orleans a golden washed out look for this cast of misfits struggling to rise above a caper gone bad. Some of the shots of the lesser characters (who I think are locals) could be taken out and used as photographs they’re so stunning.

Among those who shlepped: CNN’s Chris Cuomo and wife Cristina, MSNBC’s Ari Melber, Famke herself looking stunning, Michael and Laurie Gelman and so on. This was not a premiere, just a look-see until distributors come in with bids. But expect to see “Louisiana Caviar” in theaters before the end of the year. Cuba has the bug, now– “I love directing,” he told me , and it shows. Plus he used a song from his famous late dad, singer Cuba Gooding Jr of the Main Ingredient that showcased his old man’s lovely R&B tenor. What more could you want?

Never bet again T’Challa.

Turns out “Black Panther” did better than predicted for Sunday, coming in closer to $35 million than the prognosticated $31.6 million. So instead of $400 mil plus change, the domestic total is probably $403 million.

At this rate, “Black Panther” will be number 1 all week and weekend, beating all new releases including “Red Sparrow,” which will do well, and “Death Wish,” which will not. “Black Panther” will be number 1 on Oscar night, so look for as many of its cast as the Oscars can persuade to be at the show.

The remake of “Death Wish” is coming Friday. You remember “Death Wish,” dontcha? Charles Bronson avenging his wife’s death, shooting everything that got in his way?

A remake? Seems like poor timing, no? In the new version, Bruce Willis is probably doing the same as Bronson, only this time the wife is Elisabeth Shue, not Jill Ireland.

Problematic considering Parkland, 17 dead, and the NRA boycott, not to mention coming anti-gun marches all over the place, and high school students walking out of classes.

Not to mention that Bruce Willis, the star, is SILENT. He’s not on any late night talk shows this week. He is MIA on silent media. There’s no premiere for the movie. It’s unlikely we will see or hear from Willis, who has five daughters and probably isn’t waiting for reporters’ questions about kids and gun control.

MGM– yes there is still an MGM — is distributing “Death Wish.” They’ve put it up against Jennifer Lawrence in “Red Sparrow,” the third week of “Black Panther” and Oscar weekend, when most people are frantically catching up on Oscar nominated movies.

Will “Death Wish” go to video pretty quickly? Seems like it. Willis’s last movie, “Acts of Violence,” may have been released somewhere but no one ever reported its box office. “Extraction,” released in 2015, made $16,775. “Rock the Kasbah” made $3 million.

Stay tuned…