SFist: Jan Wahl's Contract Not Renewed

britney smears

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 20:14:22 -0800

jan wahl loves the gays, silent films, matt damon and anyone singing on broadway. that sure doesnt make her relevant. when are they going to drop henry t and his porn stache? i thought that his career was over after new years 08 at tetrino zanie. check out this medley of jan wahl going off in the poorly lit and very dated kron studio. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IgbK8PMmuo

Compur

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 10:56:13 -0800

Jan Wahl is my perfect anti-critic. If she hates something, there is a 99% chance I will love it, and vice versa.

Matt415

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 22:41:15 -0800

I'm just happy to discover I'm not the only person who reads Garchik

RobInSF

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 22:06:52 -0800

I met that loony wretch in Sausalito years ago. She's an eccentric whack job with a firm wrist and a solid knowledge of choice lube. What does she do again?

KatyG

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 17:33:21 -0800

I never watched or read her, but she reminds me of the San Francisco that was when I first moved here. Which makes me feel incredibly old. As for reviews, I judge if a movie is good or not by the number of seeds it has.

kainoa

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 17:06:03 -0800

Finally. Good riddance. Horrible hats, face, voice, AND reviews. Think Radnich and Wahl ever got naked together?

DagoUno

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 14:46:00 -0800

The awesome that is Gary cant be bested. He's old school (no pants under the desk) and the man is a work-a-holic.

mcgordonliddy

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 14:39:11 -0800

Hopefully our local media (tv & newspapers) can use this cost-cutting to focus on more local events. I dont think the era of the film critic is over per se, but perhaps the era of the LOCAL film critic is, and their precious column inches can be geared towards covering local arts. 8 pages of movie reviews in the SF Weekly is a joke, as was Wahl. Unnecessary, redundant.

Generic

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 14:18:15 -0800

If Mick LaSalle at the Chron says a movie sucks, I don't go. If Jan Wuhl says a movie sucks, I take it with a grain of salt. I can only hear about how Tarantino is horrible and Casablanca is the bestest movie ever so many times before the hat shtick gets old. And I love the hat shtick. Mick's tastes resemble the aggregators more closely. As with Rotten Tomatoes, you may miss a good movie, but you'll rarely see a bad one.

SFMan

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 13:23:15 -0800

Woohoo!

mariconsoy

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 13:21:19 -0800

Will she be selling any of her hats to help her through this tough time? There are a couple of the more glam ones that would be great for Oct 31st evening wear.

manys

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 13:00:35 -0800

Jan Wahl is no Anthony Lane.

murphstahoe

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 12:20:58 -0800

Given that most ads I see are for cars, beer, and ROSS (see honey - you don't need to go to Neiman Marcu, you can go to ROSS) the 18-55 Straight Mail Demo is more important to KRON, and Radnich has that demo nailed. He's the nuts.

DJTennessee

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 12:17:55 -0800

Gary Radnich remains on television because our appetite for on-air sexual harassment can never be satisfied.

brittney

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 12:04:59 -0800

You might be right in regards to the average movie-goer. But true film aficionados will still want the opinions of trusted, more esoteric critics like Jonathan Rosenbaum or Pauline Kael. What remains to be seen is if there are enough movie buffs to warrant these critic's careers in the future.

turtle_276

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 11:58:19 -0800

@ Brittney, good point. I meant to say that the era of film critics as, well compensated personalities(almost celebrities themselves) with individual and trusted viewpoints is over. Review aggregation sites are turning them into commodities and more or less nullify the opinion of outliers. Venerable institutions such as "At the Movies" seem to be capitulating as evidenced by the hiring of studio shill Ben Lyons. He may entertain the kids, but I'm not sure anyone really takes his opinion seriously.

brittney

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 11:40:07 -0800

How can the era of the movie critic be over due to the likes of Rotten Tomatoes, when Rotten Tomatoes relies entirely on professionally written film reviews?

katerose26

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 11:39:39 -0800

Oh happy day! This woman should have been booted off the air about a decade ago.

Greg

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 11:27:05 -0800

If you want to see something really funny, watch her scream and yell attacking Quentin Tarantino. It's on youtube.com at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7L2ukSJFgCM

Akit

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 11:15:40 -0800

Bring out the champagne and the wood burning oven! I've got some hats to roast!

travin

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 11:10:05 -0800

I'm not a big fan of Bary, but at least he knows on which side his bread is buttered.

KeithFuckinMoon

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 11:06:42 -0800

Great news. She's a buffoon. What an obnoxious glutton she is. All those idiotic hats - you can't polish a turd.

malvenkemo

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 10:59:37 -0800

Radnich remains on the air because he's awesome.

turtle_276

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 10:57:57 -0800

Regarding the Radnich v. Wahl issue, it is possible that Jan Wahl is more expensive and since cost cutting is the order of the day for traditional, the answer is likely that simple. However, I believe that the era of the movie critic is over. Sites like Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes are the best way to get a quick numerical rating without falling victim the indulgences of purposefully contrarian or idiocynratic reviewers such as Mick LaSalle or Jan Wahl. Going to the theatre is an increasingly expensive and cumbersome process and people are less willing to gamble their time and money based on the whims of a single reviewer.