Ladies First – Movie Review | Netflix

LADIES FIRST on Netflix is a 2026 remake of a 2018 French movie. The stories do differ quite a bit, but the overall theme remains, so we follow a man who wakes up in a matriarchal society after hitting his head. Starring Sacha Baron Cohen and Rosamund Pike. Read our full Ladies First movie review here and find it on Netflix now!

LADIES FIRST is a 2026 Netflix movie that is actually based on another Netflix movie from 2018. The original movie was from France, and this new story plays out in the UK instead. That’s not all that has been changed, and overall, it is not for the better.

However, this 2026 version stars Rosamund Pike, so it already has plenty going for it. It’s the story of a man enjoying life in our patriarchal society, who hits his head and wakes up in a matricarchal society. The runtime is 1 hour and 30 minutes, which is in its favor. Especially as the third act goes down a path I did not like.

Continue reading our Ladies First movie review below. Find it on Netflix now.

Who run the world? Girls!

With Ladies First, we’re getting a plot that may be familiar, but I do still feel this brings something new to the table. We meet Damien Sachs (Sacha Baron Cohen), a typical and all-too-familiar type of male chauvinist. After a confrontation with a brilliant employee, Alex Fox (Rosamund Pike), he runs into a lamp post.

After hitting his head, he wakes up in a world that may look the same, but is completely different. He has been transported to a matriarchal society. Here, he will meet all the same people as in his “normal” world, but the roles have been switched.

Girls and women are now running the world, while boys and men are expected to do everything women do in our world. In this new world, Alex Fox is a formidable female version of himself. And yes, this also means the women are acting in exactly all the bad and wrong ways that he did.

In other words, it isn’t about women running the world as women would, but rather: What would the world look like if women ran the world but behaved exactly like men are now in the real world?!

That’s how you get the message across. As ludicrous as it seems, at first, it isn’t exaggerated, but rather it’s copied.

Enjoy it for Rosamund Pike (and Fiona Shaw)

As already mentioned, Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl, I Care A Lot) stars in Ladies First as the main female character, Alex Fox. The main supporting character is portrayed by Fiona Shaw (Echo Valley, Killing Eve, Hot Milk), so with these two women front and center, I could not help but watch it!

Also, I should mention that the awesome Emily Mortimer (Check her out in Relic) and the brilliant Kathryn Hunter (Black Doves, Hedda) both play a key role as well.

However, the character we primarily follow is the male character, Damien Sachs, portrayed by Sacha Baron Cohen. I don’t feel he was necessarily the best choice. As much as I have enjoyed him in other productions, his performance in Ladies First didn’t do much for me.

In fact, this was probably why it completely lost me towards the end.

I think it’s important to note that I really enjoyed several of the other male characters and the actors who portrayed them. Especially Charles Dance (Game of Thrones, The Imitation Game) and Kadiff Kirwan (Slow Horses, I May Destroy You), as well as Richard E. Grant (Can You Ever Forgive Me?, Saltburn) as “Pigeon Man”.

Watch Ladies First on Netflix now

Director of this 2026 Netflix movie is Thea Sharrock. She previously directed the amazing movie Wicked Little Letters (2023) starring Olivia Colman and Jessie Buckley. In other words, she is used to directing some of the most amazing actors around!

Writers of the screenplay are Natalie Krinsky (The Broken Hearts Gallery), Cinco Paul (The Secret Life of Pets), and Katie Silberman (Booksmart, Don’t Worry Darling). The movie itself is based on the 2018 Netflix movie Je Ne Suis Pas Un Homme Facile (English title: I Am Not An Easy Man), written and directed by Eléonore Pourriat.

A lot of this movie was fun to watch for me. However, that ending was not something I saw coming, nor did I enjoy it. However, I can accept that it was (in a roundabout way) a nod to the original. The issue is simply that the original didn’t use the same story and plot to get to this point.

Womentainment recommendation: Watch Ladies First to feel understood

While it may be very on-the-nose in many aspects, Ladies First simply shows the world where women act exactly like men, and men behave as women are expected to. Sure, it seems exaggerated and extreme at times, but it is a mirror image of our society in a gender-swapped edition.

Not unlike The Handmaid’s Tale, where author Margaret Atwood based every wild and extreme element on something that was already happening (or had previously happened). There is nothing in Ladies First that won’t be familiar to at least some viewers.

Bottom line: Watch it to support the message, the female director and writers, as well as a largely wonderful cast.

Ladies First premiered on Netflix on May 22, 2026.

Director: Thea Sharrock
Writer: Natalie Krinsky, Cinco Paul, and Katie Silberman (based on the Netflix film “Je Ne Suis Pas Un Homme Facile” by Eléonore Pourriat)
Cast: Sacha Baron Cohen, Rosamund Pike, Emily Mortimer, Weruche Opia, Charles Dance, Fiona Shaw, Richard E. Grant, Kathryn Hunter, Kadiff Kirwan 

Official plot:

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