Sacha Baron Cohen has spent his career making other people uncomfortable—whether as Borat, Bruno, or that one time he showed up to the Oscars in character and almost started an international incident. Now Netflix has flipped the script. In Ladies First, Cohen plays a man who is suddenly the one squirming, trapped in a parallel universe where women hold all the power and his particular brand of masculine entitlement is about as welcome as a flip phone at a tech conference.
The premise is deliciously simple and dangerously timely. Damien Sachs is a high-powered advertising executive who has it all—money, influence, and a rotating cast of casual romantic partners he treats with the disposable attitude of someone who has never been told no. He is, in the parlance of the trailer, “a ladies man” in the most pejorative sense. Then he wakes up in an alternate reality where the gender dynamics have been inverted, and suddenly he’s the one being underestimated, objectified, and professionally marginalized.
Rosamund Pike plays Alex Fox, Damien’s counterpart in this new dimension—except in his original world, she was merely one of his underappreciated employees. In the parallel universe, she’s his boss, his rival, and his worst nightmare: a competent woman who doesn’t find him charming. Their battle for the top job at the advertising agency becomes the film’s central engine, with Damien discovering that the rules he exploited for years work very differently when they’re turned against him.
The film is directed by Thea Sharrock, who has experience with romantic stories that carry unexpected weight—Me Before You proved she could make audiences cry, while Wicked Little Letters showed she could handle comedy with an edge. The screenplay comes from Katie Silberman (Set It Up), Cinco Paul (Despicable Me), and Natalie Krinsky (The Broken Hearts Gallery), a trio that suggests the film will balance sharp social observation with genuine romantic comedy warmth.
The supporting cast reads like a British prestige television reunion that accidentally wandered into a Netflix comedy. Richard E. Grant brings his signature flamboyance, Emily Mortimer provides grounded intelligence, Charles Dance looms with aristocratic menace, and Fiona Shaw—fresh from Killing Eve—presumably knows exactly how to handle a man who underestimates her.
Weruche Opia, Tom Davis, and Kathryn Hunter round out an ensemble that suggests the film is taking its premise seriously enough to attract serious talent.
Ladies First is loosely adapted from the 2018 French film I Am Not an Easy Man, which explored similar territory with a lighter touch. The Netflix version appears to have sharpened the satire while maintaining the romantic comedy structure—Damien and Alex’s rivalry will presumably soften into something more complicated as he learns to navigate a world that doesn’t automatically center his experience.
What makes this potentially more than a one-joke premise is Cohen’s willingness to be the butt of the joke. His best work—Borat, The Trial of the Chicago 7, even his brief appearance in The Simpsons—comes when he commits fully to characters who don’t realize how ridiculous they are. Damien Sachs appears to be another such creation: a man so convinced of his own superiority that he can’t comprehend a universe where that conviction is laughable.
The trailer suggests visual gags that land with precision—Damien attempting his usual pickup lines in a world where women are the pursuers, Damien discovering that his “power suits” read as try-hard in a culture that doesn’t reward male peacocking, Damien slowly realizing that the empathy he never developed is now a survival skill he desperately needs.
In an era where gender dynamics dominate cultural conversation, Ladies First risks being either too preachy or too timid. But with this cast, this creative team, and Cohen’s proven willingness to make himself look absurd for the sake of the story, it might thread the needle—funny enough to entertain, pointed enough to resonate.
May 22. Mark your calendars. The patriarchy is getting a makeover.
Stream Ladies First on Netflix starting May 22 and watch Sacha Baron Cohen discover that karma is a woman with a corner office.
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