A cackle of film critics slammed this Netflix movie, but that may be all the more reason to watch Ladies First. Not just because it’s couch-friendly entertainment, but because despite the poofy-poo ponytail reviews it’s received, the film hits some damn good points homw and will make your own imagination wander.
It’s also funny, Borat-style, with Sacha Baron Cohen in the lead opposite Rosamund Pike of Gone Girl fame.
So, here’s a misogynist male advertising executive, an alpha-male guy’s kind of guy with female conquests up to his, well, elbows. Cohen’s character, Damien, is part of the so-called boys’ club and tapped to become chief executive of Atlas, the agency where he’s already leading one of the company’s biggest accounts, Guinness Beer.
And the beer wants to fire its agency because it’s not as inclusive as it should be and wants a campaign to attract more female drinkers. In response, Damien picks a random female staffer as a token creative director, discounts her opinio, and sees her quit on the same day he hired her. Then the movie really becomes interesting.
What happens when women are in charge?
In pursuit of Pike’s character, Alex Fox, Damien walks into a lamp post, passes out and is immersed in a totally different “what if” reality where all gender roles are swapped. He wakes up to it and in this remake of a French comedy Cohen pulls together farce, social commentary and a retro throwback to deliver some great, thought-provoking entertainment.
Some of the film’s environmental nuance is hilarious. Harry Potter becomes Harriet, Wonderbra becomes a testicle bra, Victoria’s Secret is now Victor’s and so on. Men groom themselves, women swig beer. are far more masculine and in control of how the world moves and shakes.
Men queue up for penile implants and hair removal. Alex, in this world, runs Atlas agency and Guinness wants to become more accessible to male drinkers.
So while the film’s premise is not really new, and there’s a loose connection to Mel Gibson’s What Women Want from decades ago, who cares? For many men, the role-reversed world feels like culture shock and that discomfort is precisely the point, because Ladies First does not explore equality.
In some instances, it explores harassment and exploitation through a lens from the opposite end of a heavily tipped scale. It feels unnaturally close to home, because we are all guilty of one of the aspects of Damien’s behaviour.
Whether it’s a notch on a bedpost or discounting a woman’s opinion, prejudice between people remains a symptom of a society that has changed in many ways, but remains stale and snail-paced in others.
Society has changed, and it has not
Ladies First lands its best sucker punches when the tables are turned completely. Suddenly it’s ball-cleavage instead of chesty glamour, men are the objects of scrutiny and the absurdity of it all forces viewers to confront just how normalised some behaviours have become.
This is why it is unfathomable that critics loved bashing this flick. It’s entertainment, yes, but its sucker punch requires a measure of personal realisation, discomfort and introspection to really feel the blow.
Watch the trailer
Casting Sacha Baron Cohen in the lead was a great move. He brings a teeny bit of Ali G to the role, the confidence of Borat and the comedic timing of, well, himself.
He’s the perfect anti-hero, while the stand-up performance of Pike, as a far more serious actor, contrasts beautifully as his opposite. Yes, a lot of the movie is bubblegum, a reprise of familiar themes, fantasy and cliché all rolled into one.
But that message can easily be lost on purist reviewers who seem more interested in blaming the production on algorithmic calculation than recognising the creativity behind it.
Ladies First is seriously enjoyable. It makes you think, it helps you unwind and it is a conversation starter that challenges some of our more comfortable prejudices.
But, at the end of the day, it’s lekker entertainment for the end of a tough week when all anyone really wants to do is escape from reality for a bit. Ladies First delivers that, amply.
