Picture Credit: Netflix
From director Thea Sharrock (Wicked Little Letters, The One and Only Ivan), Ladies First is the new gender swapping satirical comedy starring someone who specializes in the subject in Borat & Bruno star Sacha Baron Cohen. The film is a rarity of sorts in that it’s a remake of an early Netflix Original film, the French comedy Je Ne Suis Pas Un Homme Facile (I Am Not An Easy Man), released by the streamer in 2018.
Co-written by Natalie Krinsky (The Broken Hearts Gallery), Katie Silberman (Booksmart), & Schmigadoon! creator Cinco Paul, the story focuses on male chauvinist & high-powered advertising executive Damien Sachs (Baron Cohen) who, after forcing out the newly promoted female creative director for standing up to his reprehensible & sexist practices, finds himself transported to a matriarchal society where he faces new challenges under a formidable female version of himself in the form of the aforementioned forced out creative director Alex Fox (Oscar-Nominee Rosamund Pike).
In order to return to his former existence, Damien must overcome the obstacles largely associated with women in a patriarchal society structure and make his way to the top of his agency.
If this sounds familiar and you haven’t seen the French film for which it is based upon, don’t worry – you did not suffer a head injury like Damien Sachs – you have simply been fed a version of the Dickens/Scrooge “3 Ghosts” morality tale many times over the years or you’ve seen a variety of men seeing the truth of what it’s like to be a woman in some amusing gender flip design.
Ladies First. (L-R) Sacha Baron Cohen as Damien Sachs and Rosamund Pike as Alex Fox in Ladies First. Cr. Rob Youngson/Netflix © 2026.
The first one that comes to mind as an elder Millenial is the 2000 Nancy Myers rom-com What Women Want starring Mel Gibson in his leading man days. In that film, Gibson’s character is a – stop me if you’ve heard this one – a cocky, chauvinistic advertising executive (!) who after an accident (!!) magically acquires the ability to hear what women are thinking. Not shockingly, the film was critically derided as being shallow, obvious, & having to be saved by the charms of its lead actor to make its paper thin premise palatable.
Flash forward a quarter century later and here we are with a similar conceit, trying to show horrible men from cutthroat white-collar industries that if they listened, showed empathy, & embraced the thoughts and ideas of others, the world would be better for it; a worthy lesson in any part of any decade. You will not hear from me that we somehow solved sexism in the workplace or matriarchal power dynamics in this part of the 21st century. However, maybe the stereotypical archetypes, the less nuanced approaches, and familiar story beats may feel antiquated and well worn in 2026.
For their efforts, the creators of Ladies First have produced a watchable film with a sound message (recycled or not) and an impressive collection of some of my favorite British character actors (Mortimer, Shaw, & Richard E. Grant more specifically). The humor, while more amusing than laugh out loud hilarious, is mostly propped up by a large swath of gender reversal sight gags like frilly underwear with testicle holders, eating at Burger Queen, or reading the latest Harriet Potter novel. But the best comedy is provided by Baron Cohen’s performance featuring a piano rendition of Ginuwine’s “Pony” at a company function or an improvised cowboy impression while he “twirled all 3 of his guns” in a sexual roleplay scene.
If you looking for modernity in the messaging, the best I could offer is a scene in which Pike’s Alex Fox character explains to a male CEO in the matriarchal world that people believe he got his job because his company was beset by sexual harassment claims and they needed to change the narrative. She further explains that if he turns his company around, people will think it’s luck and if he fails, people will believe him to be unqualified, but mostly they will believe he never had a chance because he’s “too emotional and aggressive” for the position. This is the theme at its most pointed and most poignant, citing all the double standards lobbed at women in high ranking positions in business and rerouting them to the male counterparts.
Sadly, the elevated moments above the past iterations of a similarly designed narrative are too few and far-between to justify another riff on Dickens, Myers, and anyone else trying to put entitled white-collared monsters in their place. Ladies First is buoyed by Baron Cohen and its deep cast, but doesn’t always justify its existence. If you’re seeking a smirk and a sense of righteousness in an often cruel matriarchal world, this one should do the trick. But the cynics and the skeptics who feel like they experienced this one before, you shouldn’t feel too bad if you skip this one either.
Ladies First. (L-R) Sacha Baron Cohen as Damien Sachs and Rosamund Pike as Alex Fox in Ladies First. Cr. Rob Youngson/Netflix © 2026.
Watch Ladies First If You Liked:
- I Am Not An Easy Man (2018)
- What Women Want (2000)
- The Miniature Wife, Barbie
MVP
Sacha Baron Cohen as Damien Sachs
While my preference for Cohen projects & characters over his multiple decades in Hollywood lie more in his early Ali G extended universe, he still manages to show why he was such a sought after comedic genius in the first place.
For Ladies First, Baron Cohen mostly stands out for his physicality and his unabashed playfulness in times where he’s asked to dial it up beyond British snark. As previously mentioned, his singing performance of “Pony” and his cowboy sexual roleplay gave the film a noted spark when it mostly stayed at a steady dry wit register for the majority.
More amusing than laugh-out-loud funny, more redundant than innovative, Ladies First keeps the legacy of Scrooge-like lessons alive with an adequate but not entirely impressive satirical slant on toxic masculinity in the workplace and beyond. Baron Cohen’s enormous talent livens up the well-worn content enough to make it worth watching at times.
