Sacha Baron Cohen should have been a free speech warrior.
After all, the British actor broke out after “Borat,” the 2006 comedy that pushed the boundaries of humor, class and good taste.
That gave Cohen a rare position in Hollywood, a newly minted comedy outlaw. What would he do with his well-earned status?
Turns out he went from subversive to obedient.
How?
He turned his iconic Borat character into an anti-Trump cudgel. “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm” was a sorry sequel that existed for one reason.
To bring down Trump.
Later, he cheered when social media platforms canceled the world leader. Some free speech warrior. He was just like other liberal stars, looking the other way as speech got crushed.
Now, Cohen is leaning into his progressive side anew with “Ladies First.”
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The new Netflix comedy, released with little fanfare last week, finds him playing a chauvinist who bonks his head and wakes up in a world where women rule.
Down with the Patriarchy! Up with the Matriarchy!
That gimmick feels like a 2020 fever dream, born from the BLM protests era and Hollywood’s woke revolution.
Except this is 2026, and woke isn’t in fashion. Even liberal film critics aren’t always eager to grade woke content on a curve. They may have done just that with the execrable “Starfleet Academy,” but they did no such thing for Cohen’s new film.
“Ladies First” currently has an 18 percent “rotten” rating at RottenTomatoes.com. The reviews are unsparing.
The left-Leaning Guardian gives “Ladies First” one out of five stars:
…for a film so unashamedly silly, it’s also incredibly, tiresomely un-fun and, by the end, laughably earnest, as if we should all be learning a very important lesson.
The Financial Times’ take is downright cruel.
Sacha Baron Cohen is knocked unconscious early in Netflix comedy Ladies First, a film that only sometimes makes you wish the same for yourself.
Even the reviews that side with the film’s premise aren’t happy with the results.
It makes some valid points, then proceeds to beat them to death.
Most film critics are unabashedly liberal. That’s just science. And, more often than not, they pull their punches on progressive or “woke” content.
Even liberal critic Richard Roeper said as much regarding the reception for 2016’s “Ghostbusters” reboot.
“Ladies First” is either so lousy that liberal critics couldn’t give the film a pass, or they understand the woke era was a massive mistake, one that’s best left in the dustbin of history.
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