Remarkably Bright Creatures (A PopEntertainment.com Movie Review)

PopEntertainment
May 9
3 min read

Updated: 14 hours ago

REMARKABLY BRIGHT CREATURES (2026)

Starring Sally Field, Lewis Pullman, Joan Chen, Kathy Baker, Beth Grant, Sofia Black-D'Elia, Colm Meaney, Meghan Heffern, Donald Sales, Mapuana Makia, Brandon McEwan, Miles Marthaller, Anthony Harrison, Dan Payne, Shauna Johannesen, Chris William Martin, Michael Delleva, Noah Craig, Duncan Fraser, Andres Joseph, Sasha Craig and the voice of Alfred Molina.

Screenplay by Olivia Newman and John Whittington.

Directed by Olivia Newman.

Distributed by Netflix. 111 minutes. Rated PG-13.

You know you are in for something… unique… in the opening moments of Remarkably Bright Creatures when you realize that the film is being narrated – in perfect English, no less – by a giant Pacific octopus. It feels like a bit of a cheesy storytelling gimmick, but credit where it is due, the movie turns out to be extremely heartfelt, even if it is sometimes hard to buy into.

It is not, however, necessarily the story of the octopus, although the creature is an important supporting character in the plot. Instead, it is the story of two emotionally distraught but otherwise very different people who start to find their ways in life through an odd couple friendship.

Sally Field plays Tova, an aging nighttime cleaning lady at the aquarium where Marcellus the octopus (as voiced by Alfred Molina) resides (or is held in captivity as is his opinion). Tova is a loner who has a few friends that she keeps at a bit of a distance since the long-ago death of her husband and the mysterious disappearance (and apparent drowning) of her young son. She lives alone but is in the process of deciding to sell her life-long home and move into a home for the elderly.

And Tova is also one of the few humans that Marcellus actually seems to like.

Lewis Pullman is Cameron, a musician who lives in his late mother’s van and is passing through town in search of the father that he never knew – in fact, he’s only gotten a possible name in the past few months when his mother died, and he went through her things. When the old van breaks down, he has to take a job at the aquarium to pay for the repairs. He is also lost and trying to find his way in life, long separated from his addict mother, losing his band and hoping to hit up his apparent dad for some money.

Tova and Cameron appear to be polar opposites and have little in common – in fact early on they annoy each other completely – but Marcellus the octopus sees the connection of sadness and grief in the two. (Yeah, I know, Marcellus seems to be awfully perceptive about what is going on around him for an invertebrate, but either you’re going to go with the premise or not, and eventually I did give in.)

What Remarkably Bright Creatures is really circling, beneath the talking-octopus whimsy, is the way grief calcifies when left unattended. Tova and Cameron aren’t just lonely; they’re people who have allowed loss to define the borders of their lives. The film treats grief almost like a tide – something that recedes just long enough to trick you into thinking you’re safe before it rolls back in.

Marcellus, oddly enough, becomes the catalyst for motion. His captivity mirrors the emotional captivity both humans have accepted as normal. When he observes that “humans are the strangest creatures,” the line lands because the film suggests that humans often trap themselves far more effectively than any aquarium tank. The story’s gentle argument is that connection – unexpected, inconvenient, even interspecies – is the only force strong enough to crack open those self-built shells.

If you’re willing to be emotionally manipulated for almost two hours, there is a lot to take from Remarkably Bright Creatures, particularly the strong grounding presence of Field who sells the melodrama like this was one of her long-ago Oscar bait films. And while the ending is both kind of predictable and at the same time incredibly unlikely, by that point it’s likely that Remarkably Bright Creatures will have you caught in its tentacles.

Jay S. Jacobs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b14IFe4an5k