THE STORY – The untold story of a legendary songwriter.
THE CAST – Diane Warren
THE TEAM – Bess Kargman (Director)
THE RUNNING TIME – 91 Minutes
Chances are, anyone reading this review on a website called Next Best Picture is hyper-aware of Diane Warren and her effect on not only the film world but every year’s awards season. The self-proclaimed “Susan Lucci of the Oscars” has been nominated for – and lost – Best Original Song 15 times, including at nine of the last 10 ceremonies. It’s become something of a rule for awards predictors: Always reserve a spot for Diane Warren. This year, she’s in contention for her song “The Journey” from “The Six Triple Eight,” and you’d be hard-pressed to find a legitimate Oscar mystic who doesn’t have her predicted. But before she had a perennial seat reserved for her at the Dolby Theatre, she’d already established herself as a hitmaker, penning hugely successful and memorable songs for a wide variety of artists, starting with DeBarge’s “Rhythm of the Night“ in 1985. The aptly-titled new documentary “Diane Warren: Relentless“ dutifully chronicles the life of the songwriter, and yes, it features an original Warren composition that’s sure to be an Oscar contender.
As the film shows, she was far from nurtured as an artist in her upbringing. In fact, her intense mother actively discouraged her ambitions, and even after she’d become a musical success, her mother never entirely gave her credit for her achievements. This combative relationship only accelerated Warren’s drive – as she says, one of her favorite sayings is, “Fuck you, I’ll prove you wrong.“ With no formal training (in one interview, she bristles at discussing her songwriting process, mockingly saying, “‘What’s the process?‘ I don’t fucking know”) but tons of untapped talent, she forced her way into the music scene through tenacity and undeniable ability. And once she had her first big hit, to paraphrase her first Oscar-nominated song, nothing was gonna stop her.
Musical biographies are a staple of the documentary genre, and “Diane Warren: Relentless“ does little to upend the expected formula used by most of these films. It details her life from its unsteady beginnings before skipping lovingly through her career ascendency, with clips from her hit songs deployed to make audiences nod their heads and say to themselves, “Good song.“ This well-worn filmmaking methodology may be a strange choice for a subject who makes it clear she never tries to chase trends. Still, it can’t be denied that – like her well-loved and widely-embraced songs – the film’s structure makes it easily digestible and enjoyable.
Luckily, Warren herself is a terrific subject for a documentary. She’s idiosyncratic and brash, absolutely unafraid to speak her mind. The film doesn’t shy away from showing her more prickly personality traits, even showcasing them in a hilarious montage of her lightly berating the crew filming this very documentary when she inevitably decides she’s done speaking with them. And the many starry interviewees – including Cher, Gloria Estefan, Jennifer Hudson, and others – seemingly have all had a bizarre, off-putting, or just plain rude interaction with Warren at some point. But what they all stress is that her talent and love of music is what keeps them coming to her as a collaborator.
The film shows that Warren rejects most non-working human interactions, instead favoring the company of her pets. However, she does have one long-running, tumultuous relationship with an expressionless golden man named Oscar. By far, the film’s most fascinating aspect is its exploration of her history with the Academy Awards. The documentary was filmed during the campaign period for the 2021 Oscar ceremony, wherein she was in contention for her song “Somehow You Do“ from the addiction drama “Four Good Days.“ With absolute honesty, it shows her joy upon receiving the nomination and her devastation when she lost for the 13th time. The film also goes into detail about her shocking loss at the 2015 Oscars for “Til It Happens to You,“ which was co-written with and performed by Lady Gaga for the documentary “The Hunting Ground.” It’s clear that this loss in particular – both because of her closeness to the subject as a survivor of assault and the shock of her predicted frontrunner status being inaccurate – both severely hurt and invigorated Warren. Since then, she has kicked her Oscar campaigning into high gear, leading to her current place as a guaranteed part of every awards race.
For Oscar obsessives, the access and behind-the-scenes intrigue found in the film will make “Diane Warren: Relentless“essential viewing. In the age of “I’m just happy to be nominated,” it’s refreshing to see someone so clearly hungry to hold the 8.5-pound gold statuette. Despite being standard in its approach, the documentary depicts her in an honest yet loving way that makes it hard to not want to see her up on the Academy stage. Her outspoken desire for victory makes sense once you get to know her through the film. Oh, and as for that new song, it’s called “Dear Me,” and it’s about a subject Warren knows well: herself. She’s shown writing it throughout the film before giving it to Kesha to sing. Written as a letter to her younger self, it’s everything that audiences have come to expect of a Diane Warren film song: its lyrics are full of inspiring platitudes, and the melody is pleasant. It’s an enjoyable listen that’ll almost certainly earn this film an Oscar nomination.
