There have been plenty of movies that swap gender roles in an attempt to bring attention to the disparities that roughly half of humanity face on a daily basis, and the latest of those Ladies First has dropped on the 2026 movie schedule. Starring Sacha Baron Cohen and Rosamund Pike, the new Netflix comedy imagines a world where women have all the power, but according to the reviews, the filmmakers aren’t as successful in their endeavors as they likely hoped.
Damien Sachs is the misogynistic ad exec at the center of Ladies First, who hits his head and awakens to a world where men are objectified for their appearance and regularly sexually harassed. However, according to William Bibbiani of The Wrap, the movie never finds the right balance between being a comedy and a morality tale. His Ladies First review reads:
Ladies First isn’t particularly funny, and that’s a side effect of its sobering premise, which can’t be taken to logical conclusions without directly confronting the fact that the real world is fundamentally vile to more than half of its population. There may be camp value or at least a little catharsis in seeing the tables turned; by watching a sexist pig endure the same treatment he thoughtlessly doles out to others. But it’s easy to get distracted by the weird rules of this universe and lose sight of the ‘movie’ part of the movie.
Katie Rife of RogerEbert gives the movie 2 out of 4 stars, writing that it’s “shallow” to think that a society ruled by women would adopt the same practices as one run by men, and this simple turning of the tables feels outdated. However, the point is not to imagine a feminist utopia, Rife says:
The point is for men to understand how patriarchy hurts women by imagining that they themselves are the ones being hurt—which, to be fair, is the best way to get a certain type of misogynist to consider women’s humanity. (See: the ‘I never realized until I had a daughter…’ crowd.) This does require the audience to identify with Cohen’s character and feel at least a little sorry for him, which is difficult given how repellent a person he’s shown to be in the early stretches. It also presumes an audience of sexist men whose Netflix algorithms will never even show them this movie, let alone compel them to click on it.
Todd Gilchrist of Variety says the same thing in his Ladies First review, acknowledging that the new Netflix movie makes some good points, though nobody who needs to hear them is going to click on this particular title. It also feels outdated and doesn’t say anything that hasn’t been said in movies several times before. Gilchrist writes:
Ladies First offers some valuable lessons to men who take their spouses, female coworkers and other women in their lives for granted, but they do not seem likely to watch this film. It better serves its female audience with the escapist fantasy that they can treat others with disregard, indulge their basest impulses and still maintain control of their households, offices and social spaces.
Frank Scheck of THR admits there are enough gags in Ladies First that some are bound to land, but that doesn’t change the fact that this movie is “hopelessly old-fashioned.” He writes:
This comic tale of an arrogant, sexist male executive who gets his comeuppance when he hits his head and wakes up to find himself in a world dominated by women hits every satirical note you’d expect but provides more knowing chuckles than genuine laughs. An almost ridiculously overqualified cast of notable British thespians does their best to elevate the material of this Netflix comedy directed by Thea Sharrock (Wicked Little Letters, Me Before You), but it’s heavy lifting.
Alex Harrison of ScreenRant rates the movie 3 out of 10, saying Ladies First actually perpetuates “the patriarchal thinking it purports to upend.” Instead of seeing an entitled man get what’s coming to him, we’re made to sympathize with the way Damien is treated and root for his success. It’s “insulting,” Harrison says and a “shameful misfire.” The critic continues:
Netflix's new movie is no shoddy disaster – it's a competently, if unexceptionally, mounted production by director Thea Sharrock, featuring an impressive British and Irish cast. It's not entirely without laughs, either. But this story of a chauvinist who bumps his head and wakes up in a world where women are in charge is so fundamentally misguided that I at times could not believe I was actually watching it. A comedy sketch premise stretched to feature length, the team behind Ladies First should have spent a little less time on thinking up gender-flipped jokes and more time wondering whether they actually had a coherent story worth telling.
It sounds like Ladies First isn’t connecting with critics the way the filmmakers likely intended, but despite the message possibly not coming through, it sounds like there are plenty of clever jokes and some laughs to be had. Don’t let the reviews deter you. If you want to check out Ladies First for yourselves, fire up that Netflix subscription, because the comedy is available to stream now.
