A friend of mine, generally not finicky, refuses to eat octopus . “I just can’t eat any creature that’s smarter than I am,” he says, and he’s got a point. Octopuses are adept at problem solving and hiding themselves from prey. They can use tools. They can distinguish one human face from another. They even, possibly, have a sense of humor. All of those things might be enough to make you think twice about consuming that grilled, tentacled thing on your plate.

Parts of Netflix’s Remarkably Bright Creatures , directed by Olivia Newman and adapted from Shelby Van Pelt’s 2022 novel, might have the same effect. Sally Field plays Tova Sullivan, an elderly widow who works nights as a cleaning lady at an aquarium on Puget Sound.…