There’s so much nonsense going on I should write about now that we’re rapidly approaching early voting in New Mexico, and I probably will next month, including gobsmacking ridiculousness of local Republican ads. But on this first day of autumn, I’m determined to keep it positive.
Helping me do that was a movie seen this weekend on Netflix, mostly because of the publicity surrounding Sally Field’s well-deserved Emmy award on Sunday. Who knew the subject of sorrow would turn out to be so uplifting? Perhaps because it wasn’t only about humans, though the nonhuman star of the show exhibits far greater humanity than many of our species, especially these days.
I found much to love about Remarkably Bright Creatures, including that it’s based on a bestselling novel by Shelby Van Pelt (which I now absolutely must read); it was directed by a woman, Olivia Newman; and Sally Field made history as the oldest person to win an Emmy in the category of Outstanding Leading Actress in a Limited Anthology or Movie.
But the most gratifying for me was a subject I’ve delved into with my Other Worldly novels, that being how humans haplessly deem themselves superior to all other creatures, using a decidedly narrow, solely human, standard to define superior.
Fact is, the octopus is superior to us in intelligence. And Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus voiced by Alfred Molina in Remarkably Bright Creatures, displays that quite deftly, not to mention dryly due to his decided grumpiness. Indeed, one of his voiced observations about humans—gleaned while living in captivity in a Washington State aquarium that rescued him after an injury involving an eel—is that he possesses more brain capacity in only one of his tentacles than we have in our entire skull.
Ya think? In my sixth OW novel, Altogether Alien, I use a humpbacked whale named Humphrey and living on Sirius with other creatures including a dolphin, to relay this message. That and the fervent plea for humans to stop treating anyone other than them as lesser. How can we call ourselves superior when we’re destroying our own living environment and that of every other entity living on Earth?
But the true issue, and underscoring message in Remarkably Bright Creatures, is intelligence doesn’t matter if you don’t have heart, and don’t care about anyone other than yourself. How helping others gives you a purpose, and makes you feel better about your own woes, such as having to live in captivity.
The movie used a mix of CGI and footage of a real giant Pacific octopus named Agnetha from Vancouver Aquarium. And Marcellus was so fabulously portrayed that I defy you not to fall in love with this huge, strange, downright otherworldly entity. Did you know octopuses have three hearts? Maybe that says it all.
I’m not going to engage in spoilers, but the film involves a grieving elderly widow, a cleaning lady at a local aquarium, who talks to the giant Pacific octopus, telling it her troubles, woes, and frustrations…basically everything she won’t say to the humans in her life. She does so having no clue that this marvelous, silent creature can hear her.
Remarkably Bright Creatures is about life, relationships, overcoming loss, and the connectivity of all things. And I highly recommend you see it to give you a boost in these turbulent times. I myself plan to watch it again this week. Did I mention it also won the Emmy for Outstanding Movie?
But this afternoon I’m headed out to our local cinema to see Practical Magic 2. Because the ill-fated witches of Salem and Scotland in centuries past also feature in my OW novels, especially Being Alien, Alien Sensation, and the currently in progress Alien Origins. That, and I spent one year of high school with Sandy Bullock. She was a freshman when I was a senior, so I didn’t know her personally, but my personal pride is having had the same drama teacher as she did. The fabulous Sandra Bullock has done Arlington, Virginia, proud. I think she needs to make a movie with Sally Field next. And wouldn’t she portray a great Rowan Layne?