Ladies First (2026) Review!!

Synopsis – A male chauvinist is transported to a matriarchal society, facing challenges from a formidable female version of himself.

My Take – The battle of the sexes has been a long-running topic of contention, and from what I understand, will continue to be so for the rest of time, both in the real-world and the world of cinema. With recent films like Hidden Figures (2016), The Battle of the Sexes (2017), and the billion‑dollar juggernaut Barbie (2023) having tackled this topic to varying degrees of success.

The latest to jump on this bandwagon is this remake of 2018’s Netflix French film Je Ne Suis Pas Un Homme Facile (I Am Not An Easy Man), which aims to make a point by exploring gender inequality through satire and fantasy, flipping the script to ask what might happen if men were objectified the way women often are. Done well, this premise could have yielded biting comedy and pointed social commentary.

Unfortunately, the film forgets to bring the laughs, leaning instead on regressive gender politics. Directed by Thea Sharrock (Wicked Little Letters) and written by Natalie Krinsky (The Broken Hearts Gallery), Cinco Paul (The Secret Life of Pets), and Katie Silberman (Booksmart, Don’t Worry Darling), it aims to be a lighthearted rom‑com with satirical edges.

Credit is due for attempting to lampoon sexism and workplace misogyny, but the execution quickly runs out of steam. Tonal confusion only worsens matters: the film lurches between breezy fantasy and pointed critique without ever finding a balance.

Sure, it isn’t unwatchable, but it squanders its premise, its cast, and the righteous anger that should fuel it. The message that sexism is real and worth skewering is sound. Yet despite Rosamund Pike’s excellent presence, the repetitive humor and painfully obvious writing make this Netflix comedy more exhausting than entertaining.

The story follows Damien Sachs (Sacha Baron Cohen), a powerful ad executive tapped to succeed his CEO friend Fred Powell (Charles Dance). Damien is smug and self‑satisfied, the kind of man who treats women like office furniture, interrupts female colleagues mid‑sentence, dismisses their ideas until repeated by a man, and considers himself perfectly reasonable while doing it. His priorities are money, sex, and power.

At the office, Damien reluctantly agrees to promote a woman to save a massive account. His assistant Ruby (Weruche Opia) hands him a list, and in careless fashion he chooses the first name alphabetically. That name is Alex Fox (Rosamund Pike), a dedicated employee who has given twenty years to the company. From there, the world begins to unravel.

After enduring his condescension, Alex quits. Damien chases after her, only to walk straight into a steel pole. But when he regains consciousness, he finds himself in a world where women hold all the power and men are casually exploited as eye candy.

The setup is legitimately promising. The first act earns its laughs. The film establishes its reversed world with sharp, funny details like Five Gals instead of Five Guys, billboards with sexualised male bodies, Harriet Potter and Lady of the Rings on the bookshelf, and men wearing ball bras. The absurdity works because the satirical point is clear and the mirror being held up is uncomfortably accurate. For about twenty minutes, the film does exactly what it set out to do. Then it runs out of new things to say and decides to repeat the existing things more insistently.

For ninety‑three minutes, the film aspires to make fun of the gender divide, but it is built around the rather dubious concept that what women really want is revenge against men rather than fairness and respect. Scene after scene cycles through the same reversals. Men are talked over. Men are objectified. Men are passed over for promotion. Men are called emotional.

Each scene makes the same observation: sexism is real, it is embedded everywhere, it feels awful when it happens to you. The film never moves past that observation into anything deeper or more surprising. Effective satire usually reveals something you had not quite seen before, or sharpens a vague feeling into something precise and uncomfortable. This screenplay is content to show you what you already know and then show it again.

Narrative devices like the downtrodden Pigeon Man (Richard E Grant) only highlight the film’s tendency toward gimmickry. At its core lies a serious issue, the entrenched battle between men and women, but the choice to play it primarily for laughs dilutes the urgency. Instead of sharpening the satire, the film reduces the problem to a series of comic reversals, leaving the weight of the subject undercut by its own frivolity.

Performance wise, Sacha Baron Cohen, who has built a career on fearless, boundary‑pushing comedy, seems strangely tentative here. Damien needs to be magnetic enough that his behavior is initially excused, and vulnerable enough that his downfall carries weight. Cohen never quite finds either register.

Rosamund Pike, by contrast, is effortlessly commanding. Coolly funny and razor‑sharp, she is the only performer who seems to fully grasp the film she is in. Every scene she enters lifts immediately. She deserves a sharper, smarter film built around her, and the fact that she elevates this one is proof of her skill. Fiona Shaw also delivers with relish, leaning into her role as a predatory CEO.

Elsewhere, Richard E Grant, Charles Dance, Kathy Hunter, Tom Davis, Weruche Opia, and Emily Mortimer are serviceable. On the whole, ‘Ladies First‘ is an exaggerated comedy about an important subject that manages to be neither consistently funny nor genuinely progressive.