Review by Jon Donnis
Ladies First, directed by Thea Sharrock, is a 2026 American comedy centred on Damien Sachs, an advertising executive whose life is turned upside down when he is thrust into a parallel world where women hold the dominant positions in society and business. Damien, played by Sacha Baron Cohen, begins as a powerful and self assured figure at the Atlas advertising agency, where he is on the verge of becoming chief executive. After manipulating a pitch meeting for a Guinness beer campaign aimed at women and being forced to promote a woman to cover his lie, he selects Alex Fox, a long serving but overlooked creative director played by Rosamund Pike. This decision sets off the chain of events that leads to his collapse into an alternate reality.
In this new version of the world, Atlas has been reshaped by reversed gender power structures. Alex Fox, who was previously a sidelined creative at the company, now occupies the senior leadership role Damien once held. Ruby, Damien’s assistant played by Emily Mortimer, has been promoted into an executive position. Felicity Chase, played by Fiona Shaw, is now the chief executive of the company, while Fred Powell, played by Charles Dance, has been reduced from senior leadership to a more subservient assistant role. Even Glenda, formerly a cleaning staff member, now sits as chair of the board. Damien struggles to understand this new order and is later told by a mysterious figure known as the Pigeon Man, played by Richard E Grant, that he must reclaim power within this world if he is to return home.
There are clear strengths in the film’s cast and its central premise. Sacha Baron Cohen fully commits to Damien’s descent from control into confusion, while Rosamund Pike gives Alex Fox a steady authority that grounds the more exaggerated ideas around them. The supporting cast, including Emily Mortimer as Ruby, Fiona Shaw as Felicity Chase, Charles Dance as Fred Powell and Richard E Grant as the Pigeon Man, helps to establish a recognisable corporate environment even when the narrative becomes increasingly surreal. The initial concept has clear satirical potential, and there are moments where the reversal of workplace roles creates a sharp, if fleeting, sense of comic tension.
The weaknesses become more apparent as the film progresses. The central idea is repeated rather than expanded, with Damien repeatedly placed into situations that mirror his earlier behaviour, which quickly becomes predictable. The comedy relies heavily on humiliation and reversal without introducing enough variation, and the tone settles into a familiar pattern of setup and correction. As a result, the satire loses some of its bite, and what begins as an interesting premise gradually flattens into a more conventional redemption story.
By the final act, Damien returns to his original world after another collapse in the parallel reality. Back at Atlas, he attempts to change his behaviour and make amends, including offering Alex Fox a more meaningful leadership role within the company. Alex’s campaign idea proves successful, while Damien steps back from his earlier arrogance and accepts a shift in outlook. The story closes with a sense of reset, while the Pigeon Man begins the process again with another man drawn into the reversed world.
Ladies First has a strong concept and an impressive cast, but it struggles to develop its premise beyond repetition. The gags fall flat as the one joke structure is stretched across feature length, and the comedy funnels into a predictable arc of comeuppance and redemption. It feels like a sketch idea expanded too far, with limited progression beyond the initial reversal concept.
The film ultimately comes across as 40 years too late in its idea, relying on workplace gender reversal humour that no longer feels relevant. In a modern context, where women have already held the highest political offices, including three female Prime Ministers in the UK, and where claims around workplace inequality such as a gender pay gap are widely contested in the way the film frames them, the satire feels blunt rather than sharp. As a result it becomes uneven and predictable, never quite delivering on the sharper satirical potential it hints at early on.
The result is a concept that should have worked better in another era, but here feels overstretched and underpowered. It scores a 4 out of 10.
Out Now on Netflix
