Remarkably Bright Creatures

"Brighter together."

2026 1h 54m EN

🙌

8.4

BANGER

★8.4TMDB · 957

DramaMystery

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Through unlikely bonds formed during night shifts at a local aquarium, Tova, an elderly widow, learns of a life-changing discovery that may bring her joy and wonder once again.

“Brighter together.”

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Where to watch · US

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Cast

Sally Field
Tova Sullivan
Lewis Pullman
Cameron Cassmore
Colm Meaney
Ethan Mack
Alfred Molina
Marcellus (voice)
Joan Chen
Janice Kim
Kathy Baker
Mary Ann Minetti
Beth Grant
Barb Vanderhoof
Sofia Black-D'Elia
Avery

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Olivia Newman
Writers: Olivia Newman, John Whittington
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 7

ERA

Did you know

Released this year — you're seeing it while it's still in the cultural conversation.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Olivia Newman, shot by Ashley Connor. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Dickon Hinchliffe. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Tamara Meem shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 7

CAST

Did you know

Sally Field and Lewis Pullman and Colm Meaney carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 7

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "Brighter together.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 7

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt33100314 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Olivia Newman directs. Ashley Connor behind the camera. Dickon Hinchliffe scores. Tamara Meem cuts. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Released this year — you're seeing it while it's still in the cultural conversation.
2Directed by Olivia Newman, shot by Ashley Connor. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
3Original score by Dickon Hinchliffe. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
4Editor Tamara Meem shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
5Sally Field and Lewis Pullman and Colm Meaney carry the top of the cast.
6Marketing tagline: "Brighter together.".
7IMDB entry: tt33100314 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
8Classified under 8 themes, including "aquarium", "octopus", "british columbia", "washington".

The technical file

Cinematography: Ashley Connor
Original score: Dickon Hinchliffe
Editing: Tamara Meem
Production design: Jennifer Morden
Costume design: Carla Hetland
Makeup / hair: Connie Parker
VFX supervisor: Chris Ritvo
Sound: Kevin O'Connell
Stunt coordinator: Jennifer Clarke
Runtime: 114 min · 1h 54m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Original language: EN
Certification (US): PG-13
IMDB: Remarkably Bright Creatures (2026)

Also by

Olivia Newman

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Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

Zeus2026-05-28
★ 9/10
#Mymuvir3 #RemakablyBrightCreatures2026 #688 9/10 stars review ratings #SallyField #LewisPullman #ColmMeaney #Marcellus (Octopus Voice) One of those movie whether you really hate it or love it. In this case its more to the earlier I suppose. Set up on an ordinary life of a lady ,, an aquarium keeper and yes the miracle starts from there. One of the great acting from Sally Field and thats not even an exaggeration. Its a 9/10 stars review ratings from me and it is well deserve hwen the whole story form up.
badelf2026-08-13
★ 7/10
7/10: Sally Field delivers a career-highlight performance that transcends the film's otherwise conventional craft, turning a potentially saccharine premise into something genuinely moving about loss, solitude, and second chances. The opening moments are a whimsy that feels pitched to a younger demographic. But give Olivia Newman's adaptation of Shelby Van Pelt's novel twenty minutes to settle into itself, and what emerges is something genuinely affecting: a meditation on aging, youth, loss, love, and the unlikely connections that allow us to forgive ourselves and each other. Sally Field anchors the film with the kind of lived-in performance that reminds you why she's collected two Oscars and a lifetime of respect. She plays Tova, a widow still haunted by her son's disappearance decades earlier, who works night shifts at a small-town aquarium and finds solace in solitude. Field doesn't traffic in sentiment; she finds the specific rhythms of this particular grief, the way it's calcified over years into something that structures her life unconsciously. Watch her hands as she cleans the tanks, or the way she holds her body at a slight remove from the younger staff; this is an actress who understands that her craft is physical, not just emotional. The film's central conceit is a voiced octopus named Marcellus who observes, judges, and ultimately helps orchestrate the narrative's resolution. Alfred Molina voices the cephalopod with dry wit and surprising pathos, and to Newman's credit, she doesn't oversell the device. The octopus is not magical surrealism here. He is a literary device, a witness who sees what the human characters cannot or will not. Lewis Pullman does what he can with a character arc that's been rushed to fit the film format, never quite earning its emotional beats. The script, by Newman and John Whittington, brings him into Tova's orbit through a series of contrivances that feel precisely that: contrived. Yet Pullman finds grace notes in the margins, moments of depth the writing doesn't fully explore. He and Field have a late-film scene that transcends the material through the sheer commitment of two fine actors. Whittington's screenplay deserves credit for balancing comedy and heartbreak without collapsing into bathos. There are genuine laughs here, many courtesy of Marcellus' observations, and the writing understands that loss and humor often coexist in real life. The movie's themes ultimately land with respect for the audience's intelligence. But here's where the film stumbles: Newman, who showed real visual ambition with Where the Crawdads Sing, opts for safe. The cinematography is competent but uninspired, the kind of standard-issue Hollywood warmth that signals "Hallmark drama" without ever taking risks. The aquarium, the small town, and the cabin setting offer opportunities for visual poetry such as the play of light through and on water, the way glass separates and connects us, but the film rarely capitalizes on these possibilities. It looks good; it just isn't distinctive or creative. This matters because the story itself traffics in the extraordinary: an octopus as moral agent, a decades-old mystery, the slow combustion of human connection across generational divides. The material is brave, but the execution is merely professional. You can feel Newman respecting the source material, honoring the performances, hitting her marks; and yet never quite trusting herself to make something audacious enough to match the narrative's ambitions. Field, on the other hand, elevates everything around her. She always has. There's a moment late in the film where she learns something that re-contextualizes her entire adult life, and Field plays it not as revelation but as a kind of terrible relief, the way some truths arrive less as shock than as confirmation that the gods are on our side. It's masterclass work, the kind that makes you wish the film surrounding her was half as fearless.