Long-running 80s sketch The Worm That Turned imagined a dystopian world run by women, inspired by the election of Margaret Thatcher. It has not aged well – yet it bears similarities to a brand-new movie
At the end of last week, a trailer dropped for a new Netflix movie entitled Ladies First. Starring Sacha Baron Cohen and Rosamund Pike, the film is billed as a “playful satire” about a man who bumps his head and discovers that women have taken over the world.
And what a nightmare it is. There is a female pope. King’s Cross is now called Queen’s Cross. Baron Cohen discovers, to his horror, that he now owns a cat. Judging by the trailer he spends most of the movie getting waxed, wearing impractical underwear and being leered at by female cab drivers. At one point, after Baron Cohen starts a sentence with “If the board had any balls,” Pike speed-shouts: “The delicate sacks that dangle from your body, with the slightest tap sends you weeping to the ground?” by way of reply. If they gave out Oscars for doing your best with unscannable dialogue, she would be a shoo-in.