Remarkably Bright Creatures Review

Olivia Newman, who directed Where the Crawdads Sing, adapts Shelby Van Pelt's novel with an octopus as narrator: Marcellus, an old giant Pacific octopus voiced by Alfred Molina, watches the aquarium's night cleaner, Tova Sullivan (Sally Field), and wants out of his tank. Tova is a widow who lost her son years ago and will not stop working; Cameron (Lewis Pullman) is a drifter with a broken van, a mother who has just died and questions about his father.

Field is the film. Her Tova is prickly, dry and closed off, and her scenes with Marcellus through the glass are the heart of it; the production filmed a real octopus at the Vancouver Aquarium and used a digital double only where it had to. Pullman is likable, the Knit-Wits (Joan Chen, Kathy Baker, Beth Grant) are good company, and the plot's central coincidence is signposted so clearly that the reveal lands as confirmation rather than surprise.

Netflix released it on May 8, 2026. Critics were lukewarm, 85 percent on Rotten Tomatoes but 55 on Metacritic, and the Television Academy was not: it won the Emmy for outstanding movie, and Field won for lead actress in a limited series or movie.