Sacha Baron Cohen's Ladies First flops with lazy gender satire
A British remake of the 2018 French Netflix film I Am Not an Easy Man, Ladies First stars Sacha Baron Cohen as Damien Sachs, a sexist advertising executive. After waking up in a world where women hold all the power, he struggles to navigate a society that mirrors his own prejudices. The film co-stars Rosamund Pike as Alex, a sharp but underestimated colleague in his male-dominated workplace. Ladies First opens with Damien and his co-worker Fred scheming to promote a woman into a leadership role—purely for appearances—to secure a major beer brand account. Their plan backfires when Damien suddenly finds himself in an inverted reality, a matriarchy where gender roles are reversed. The moment of his awakening is shot with an upside-down camera, visually reinforcing the disorientation of his new world.
The soundtrack leans into the theme, featuring female artists covering male-centric songs like Radiohead’s *Creep* and Lou Reed’s *Walk on the Wild Side*. Costume design plays a key role, particularly for Pike’s character, whose outfits oscillate between projecting authority and being overtly objectified. Meanwhile, Damien’s sister, played by Emily Mortimer in a brief but memorable scene, delivers one of the film’s cruder moments with an unapologetic, thunderous fart. Critics argue that the film’s premise—a satirical take on gender dynamics—is never fully developed. Instead of sharp social commentary, the script relies on broad, simplistic jokes and underwritten characters. The result, according to one reviewer, is a lazy, heavy-handed comedy that fails to deliver on its potential.
Ladies First arrives as a missed opportunity, with a high-concept idea that never moves beyond surface-level gags. The verdict from reviewers is clear: the film lacks depth, and audiences would do better to skip it. For those still curious, it’s now streaming on platforms where the original French version once found an audience.
