Diane Warren: Relentless
It would be the height of irony if the legendary songwriter finally won the Oscar for Best Song -- on the 17th try! -- for the documentary about her extraordinary life and career.
Life is full of irony. I could think of no grander joke than if legendary songwriter Diane Warren finally won the Academy Award for Best Song — on her 17th try! — for the documentary about her extraordinary life and career.
But that’s a distinct possibility we could see at the Oscars ceremony on March 15, as Warren is nominated for “Dear Me,” the tune she wrote to accompany “Diane Warren: Relentless,” written and directed by Bess Kargman. It’s currently available for rental on all the usual streaming platforms.
Continuing my quest to see all 54 films that received a nomination for the Academy Awards celebrating the 2025 year in film, I once again found a documentary feature I preferred over several that actually received a nod in that category.
“Relentless” is both celebration and serious exploration of Warren’s legacy and quirky personality. Without formal training in music or any kind of showbiz connections, she went on from humble middle-class roots to become one of the most successful songwriters of all time, with more hits than one could possibly count.
Able to compose in seemingly any genre of pop music, from power love ballads to Latin-themed dance numbers to hard rock, Warren has made a particular endeavor in writing music for movies. For the last 40 years, whether you’ve known it or not you were often listening to a Warren number during a film’s end credits, or even as part of the main story.
She’s actually been nominated for the last nine Academy Awards in a row. And then there’s the chart hits: “Rhythm of the Night.” “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now.” “Blame It on the Rain.” “Don’t Turn Around.” “Love Will Lead You Back.” “If I Could Turn Back Time.” “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing.” “Un-Break My Heart.” “Because You Loved Me.” “Til It Happens to You.”
The list goes on.
So how has Warren managed to become such a powerhouse in the music industry despite being the furthest thing from a household name? That’s what we find out in this documentary, which tracks her life from awkward, chubby kid growing up in Van Nuys to the indomitable — but still awkward — woman who, at age 69, shows no signs of slowing up.
If you’re wondering why Warren has always been the artist behind the front man or woman, the answer is simple: she’s a pretty terrible singer. (As we’ll get to hear.) But she grew up in the late 1960s and early ‘70s, the first great blossoming of the songwriter era, and knew she was destined to write for others. No ego about it.
She had a loving relationship with her father, a bit of distance from two much older sisters, and a complicated thing with her mother — one of those classic “no hugs, no encouragement” types of ballbusters who was still pressing Warren to think about being a teacher and secretary, even after she was earning fame and millions of dollars in music.
Early on Warren landed a songwriting contract while still in her 20s, for the princely sum of $200 a week and zero sharing of the publication rights (where the real money is). But it paid her rent, and she was just happy to be earning a living making music. After “Rhythm of the Night” became a huge hit and she sued her boss for her freedom, Warren established her own company and has owned her own songs ever since.
We get to see her fierce connection with her pets, including an ancient, (mostly) hairless cat named Mouse that she dubbed the ugliest thing she’d ever seen upon laying eyes on him. For awhile she was known for squiring around Los Angeles with a foul-mouthed parrot on her shoulder.
Warren never had children or even seemed much interested in romance, which is a very strange thing for someone whose songs mostly fixate on the thrill and heartbreak of love. Though we do meet a producer, Guy Roche, who she was quietly involved with for a few years back when. They’re still friends, and it seems that’s all Warren needs these days besides her music.
Inside her highly protected inner sanctum, we see an office seemingly full of trash — lyrics scribbled on Post-It notes, mountains of cassettes (yes, cassettes) that she still records the early versions of her compositions on, etc. Her fancy house in Hollywood is about the same. Ordered minds make for disordered spaces, and all that.
Plenty of friends, associates and even some very big names show up to give interviews talking about Warren: Cher, Jennifer Hudson, LeAnn Rimes, Common, Toni Braxton, Beyoncé. They all speak about her relentless, even annoying determination that her latest song is the best song she’s every written, and you simply must record it.
Cher delivers an amusing story about Warren quite literally grabbing her ankles and refusing to let go until she at least made an attempt at one song, which the legend had initially hated. It turned out to be “If I Could Turn Back Time,” arguably the biggest hit of Cher’s career.
There’s plenty of other lore from Warren’s storied life: sitting in a tinny metal shed in her parents’ backyard, writing her first songs; going to parties but making an immediate beeline for the bathroom, her favorite place to try out the acoustics; some disturbing childhood experiences that only came to light as a result of working on yet another of her big hits.
“I’ve always just wanted to be the songwriter, not the singer,” Warren says. Despite being the heart, not the voice, of all those indelible tunes, she certainly has had a lot to say.
Alas, it appears likely Warren will again come away empty-handed at the Oscars as “Golden” from “KPop Demon Hunters” seems to have the inside track, winning in all the run-up awards.
Knowing Warren from this terrific doc, she’s already writing the next song that will garner her that 18th — and hopefully triumphant — Best Song contender.