The Unfettered Critic – June 2026

IN 1985, when Sally Field received her “Best Actress” Academy Award statuette for the film Places in the Heart, she turned her tear-filled eyes to the Hollywood audience and said, “I can’t deny the fact that you like me. Right now, you like me!”

How could we not?

Field has been performing on the big and small screen for most of our lives, from Gidget and The Flying Nun, through Sybil and Stay Hungry, and onward into Steel Magnolias, Forrest Gump, Lincoln, and so many more. The petite actress calmly defines her career by representing the ultimate “Extraordinary Everywoman.”

Well, no surprise—she’s brought that woman to us again, and we couldn’t be happier.

But wait—we’ve gotten ahead of ourselves…

Our subject here is a tale, titled Remarkably Bright Creatures, which started as a book and evolved into a movie while offering so many discussable aspects that we weren’t sure where to start.

So:

Last February, there was a “book signing” at Medford’s Craterian Theater. You’ve heard of book signings. They occur when an author appears at a public venue in hopes of selling a small stack of books, signing a few autographs, and becoming notable enough that a possible next book may sell a slightly taller small stack of books.

In this case, first-time novelist and Pacific Northwest native Shelby Van Pelt, was enjoying an exceptional multi-city tour, bypassing bookstores and selling out places like the 700-seat Craterian because the reading public’s interest was being tugged and hugged by eight suction-cup covered arms. At the heart of Remarkably Bright Creatures, you see, is an octopus named Marcellus. And cleaning the area around Marcellus’ ocean-water filled tank every evening is a lonely, aging widow, Tova.

Author Van Pelt kindly signed extra copies of the book for our favorite Jacksonville bookstore, Rebel Heart, and (a bit late in the game, we admit) we picked one up.

We loved the book, which we soon learned was being adapted into a movie—now streaming on Netflix and, well, here we are.

The movie’s casting is spot-on. We relish Tova’s efforts to befriend the curmudgeonly octopus Marcellus, voiced splendidly by actor Alfred Molina (Chocolat). Field is totally immersed in her performance as the late-night aquarium janitor, and may very well bring tears to your eyes with her emotional range.

Beyond Tova, we learn more about Marcellus than any other character because he, in essence, narrates the film. Lewis Pullman (son of Spaceballs actor Bill Pullman) plays a likeable 30-ish drifter who wanders into town hoping to track down his unidentified father. And one of our personal favorites—Irishman Colm Meaney, a veteran of several Star Trek productions—plays Ethan, a grocer who has a thing for Tova.

The script for the book-to-film adaptation was penned by Olivia Newman (who also directed the film) and John Whittington. While some may quibble about details left out of the script, we think they did a noteworthy job, cutting a clean path through the story, while losing none of the emotional punch of the book.

Although told by an octopus, Remarkably Bright Creatures is not a children’s film, nor a cartoon. Marcellus was designed after a real-life octopus at the Vancouver Aquarium. “There was no way we were able to train an octopus to do all the specific blocking that we needed in the movie,” director Newman told the press. “So we settled on creating a CGI version.”

And the result? Remember when the first Christopher Reeve Superman movie was promoted with the line, “You’ll believe a man can fly?”

Yeah, octopus fans. It’s like that.