‘Diane Warren: Relentless’ Review: A Refreshingly Honest Look at the Strong-Willed Oscar-Nominated Songwriter | SXSW 2024

Winning an Oscar is easy but losing fifteen times fits one person and one person only: Diane Warren, the songwriter who just lost her seventh consecutive bid for Best Original Song at the Oscars. Frequently nominated for contributing songs to films that are otherwise not at all in the Oscar conversation, like Flamin’ Hot, Tell It Like a Woman, and Breakthrough, Warren has an unbreakable spirit that gets probed through incisive interviews with the music legend herself and the many recognizable personalities in her orbit.

Diane Warren: Relentless opens with Cher offering up her most blunt commentary on her Burlesque collaborator Warren: “How about that Diane is nuts? Can we start off with that?” She qualifies her seemingly piercing comment with a follow-up that she doesn’t think Warren would argue with her for a second: she has some good and bad qualities, but she writes great songs. Warren freely admits that she’s a pain in the ass, and Cher’s assessment that she has few boundaries but is willing to do whatever it takes to succeed is shared by most who contribute their opinions to this film.

Tracing the history of Warren’s ascension in the music industry is an interesting starting point, examining her first lackluster contract that paid her just $200 a week with no revenue share, which she tried to change with a lawsuit that then meant no one wanted to hire her since they too would become party to the lawsuit. But that backstory isn’t nearly as enticing as getting to hear from Warren herself and learn about how she works, as well as how many of her most memorable songs wouldn’t have come to be if she hadn’t pushed back to make them happen.

Even if she’s only won an honorary Oscar – the first songwriter to ever receive one, she proudly brags – she has many laurels on which to rest. She’s worked with some of the true greats and been part of their big breakthroughs, including Aerosmith, Lady Gaga, and LeAnn Rimes. Standout show-stopping numbers are introduced with a comment or two about where the lyrics started before transitioning directly into a performance by the artist, a considerable improvement over Warren’s demos, which she says have often discouraged artists from working with her because they don’t sound nearly as good as the eventual finished product. 

This film spends just the right amount of time with Warren to allow her to convey her worldview to audiences. She shows a newspaper article she still has from when she ran away from home as a kid, and explains how she worked hard to earn good grades for one semester only in order to earn the guitar promised by her parents. She sums up her relationship with her mother by quoting her response to her success: “that’s really a beautiful song, Diane, now go to Ralph’s to see if they’ll give you groceries for it.” She’s frank and honest about her Asperger’s Syndrome diagnosis and stresses her need for routines. She laughs at people’s projections about her sexuality, offering that “I’m straight, but everyone thinks I’m gay. I don’t care what I am.”

What Oscar devotees may enjoy most -about this film is its focus on Warren’s Oscar record. Multiple clips show the Best Original Song category being announced and someone other than Warren winning. Seeing the process to craft each song is extremely enlightening and rewarding, with “Til It Happens to You,” sung by Lady Gaga in The Hunting Ground, a particularly poignant example because, as she reveals, she was molested as a child and hadn’t talked about it until that point. She describes her unwon Oscar as the “elusive butterfly,” and how it’s now become a joke that she won’t win. She still maintains her tradition of slumberless slumber parties the night before Oscar nominations are announced, far too nervous to sleep before she might hear her name called early in the morning. 

Ninety-one minutes isn’t nearly long enough to fulfill dissect each hit from Warren’s career, and it’s staggering to see and hear the many unforgettable songs she’s written, including “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now,” “Un-Break My Heart,” and “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing.” While others express that, if they had Warren’s money, they would have a yacht, she just insists that she loves it when someone tells her that she can’t do something. Her perseverance is admirable, and this film offers a lively and energizing portrait of her creative spirit.

Grade: B+

This review is from the 2024 SXSW Film Festival.