Professor Polvo

I had mixed reactions to this documentary about a man's love for an octopus. I've seen a lot of reviewers complain that it's yet one more story about a self-absorbed privileged white guy whining about his white person problems and making the underwater natural world all about himself. I can see how people might react to the movie that way I guess, but I didn't feel that way while watching it. Instead, I thought it was a visually breathtaking film about our relationship with and responsibility to the natural world. The way he approached his subject didn't seem that intrusive to me, and there were several moments where he explicitly said he did not interfere with nature even when he wanted to because he didn't want to upset the natural balance. I thought this film was a good reminder that we co-exist with the natural world and it's to mankind's benefit to respect it and try to understand it, if for no other reason than that our lives depend on it.

And and can I just say that the octopus may just be one of the most fascinating creatures on the face of the earth?

Grade: A-

Such an amazing documentary, told from four hearts, about an unlikely connection between a human and an octopus. What's amazing about this movie is that was capable of making me feel good about nature as well as humans. The mere fact that we both want to connect, just shows that there is a stronger connection between us and the animal kingdom than most of us realize. Absolute must watch...

If "My Octopus Teacher" does win the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature as predicted, (it's already won the BAFTA), I don't think I'll be complaining even if I think "Collective" the better film and the more worthy winner but that's only because "Collective" tells the more important story and is the more radical film. "My Octopus Teacher" is fairly radical, too, and as documentary filmmaking goes it's a beautiful job of work with some of the finest 'natural' cinematography I've ever seen, ("Blue Planet" eat your heart out).

It even has a plot of sorts and two leading players. One is Craig Foster, an explorer and cinematographer whose daily dives to a kelp forest in the seas off South Africa leads him to the films second character, a female octopus that Foster becomes very attached to and who, it would appear, becomes very attached to him, literally at times. Octopuses, it turns out, are highly intelligent creatures and Foster's octopus seems more intelligent than most, an 'alien' creature that can recognize an individual human being and want to be with that human, albeit in her own natural environment.

Of course, the octopus is also a wild animal in a wild, natural environment and much as he might want to Foster knows he can do nothing to change that; as we say, he has to let nature take its course while at the same time allowing himself to be 'taught' by the octopus, taught not just to care about the octopus itself but creatures in general and, strange as it may seem, interacting with this creature brough Foster closer to his own son. Superbly photographed and edited, its only falut lies in Foster's rather deadpan narration. He may be a nice guy but is somewhat dull in his delivery; luckily his camera speaks volumes.

This is the second documentary I have watched on the Octopus, but this one is more personal. We don't get to know the context except that human protagonist has gone through a period of crisis and goes back to one of his childhood occupations--underwater exploration. He doesn't set out to study the octopus, but is surprised by one in particular and in over a period of several days earns its trust. He learns something everyday right up to the end (and beyond). My title comes from the protagonist, Craig Foster who originally saw himself as visitor, but came to realize we all are part of nature. Beautiful and I mean beautiful cinematography and moodily appropriate music.

"A lot of people say an octopus is like an alien. But the strange thing is, as you get closer to them, you realize that we're very similar in a lot of ways." Craig Foster, Founder of Sea Change Project

A lot of people come to an undersea doc caring mainly for the spectacular cinemaphotography. Not so much here because the Netflix original, My Octopus Teacher, is all about the relationship between an invertebrate and a man--the photography helps rather than dominates.

Herman Melville could have learned a thing or two from narrator and diver Craig Foster, whose gentle delivery draws you in the way his octopus love does. Melville could have minimized most of his delivery, whereas Foster and co-writer James Reed gently tell us about this lovely miniature wonder and her world in the simplest, most lyrical way.

She soothes us with her daily routine (Foster spends almost a year observing her without scuba tank (a year is the lifespan of the Octopus). She coyly draws him in like a lover. If you have your Octopus knowledge only from Jules Verne, you be astonished how small she is and loving-at one point, Foster caresses her, revealing how small she is, and vulnerable. Yet, she trusts him as well she should. See this masterpiece just to witness him lovingly holding her.

Foster adheres to the Star-Trek non-intervention mandate and watches how his beloved aqua woman is pursued by a hungry shark. Drama ensues with a slow-burning suspense most horror films would love to have.

You are likely to experience the mental cleansing the narrator did as he lost his depression, connected with his son, and found his place in the natural world, and thus the human world, while he became more intimate with her and her small world:

"What she taught me was to feel... that you're part of this place, not a visitor. That's a huge difference." Foster