Sacha Baron Cohen’s comedies have always been political. On the surface, they present as bawdy but broadly accessible provocations, such as Borat’s Eastern European caricature. But amid the gags, there is almost always a leftist-coded grievance waiting to be aired. Borat, for instance, was as scornful of Southerners and then-President George W. Bush as it was of its fictional Kazakh buffoon. The Dictator, Cohen’s last truly great film, in its third act, features a lengthy tirade about how America shares many of the same foibles as Islamic tyrannies. Rarely, though, have these political interludes overwhelmed his otherwise outlandish and obscene comic instincts.Which brings us to Ladies First, Cohen’s latest Netflix comedy, directed by Thea Sharrock. A remake of the 2018 French film I Am Not an Easy Man, it is a feminist fantasy somewhere between Freaky Friday, What Women Want, and Barbie, though without the charm or wit of any of them. It is fueled instead by the comedic charisma of a workplace HR seminar delivered by Hannah Gadsby.Cohen plays Damien Sachs, a marketing executive and general Don Juan who, to borrow a phrase from The Big Lebowski, “treats objects like women.” He plays the role with deceptive ease, naturally suited to the sort of hubris and casual condescension the archetype requires. Damien is so brazenly offensive at the office that his assistant keeps a running document titled “Things Damien Said in Case I Get Fired,” as insurance.