'Siren: The Voices of Shelley Beattie' A Review

Siren: The Voices of Shelley Beattie is a documentary about bodybuilder and performer Shelley Beattie, aka Siren from American Gladiators. Narrated by and featuring Marlee Matlin as she and director Irene Taylor interview people from Beattie's life, cut with archival footage, home movies, and animations of Beattie's journals and artwork.

Beattie's life, career, deafness, and struggles with addiction are explored with a thoughtfulness and depth this kind of celeb profile doesn't usually have. She was a trailblazer, an inspiring figure, but she also had a darkness and rage, all of which is shown, this is not a curated pick-and-chose portrait like Taylor's previous I Am Celine Dion which was more entertainment than documentary. There's sorrow here as well as hope, success as well as despair. A complete, compelling and human story.

A feature that has a necessary vitality to it, Beattie deserves to be remembered, her story to be known, and this accomplishes that with grace and insistence. A shame this didn't get theatrical distribution.

Currently streaming on HBO Max.

See It.