Review: House of Hammer

The Armie Hammer documentary came out on Discovery this weekend and I was looking forward to getting some clarity on the allegations surrounding the now (or maybe now) shamed actor Armie Hammer who starred in Call Me By Your Name and most recently Death on the Nile. As a refresher, multiple allegations came out in January 2021 that Hammer had allegedly sexually abused multiple women and also participated in cannibalistic acts and/or desires (that aspect is still unclear). Yeah he talks about eating people and it's fucked up.

WARNING - SPOILERS AHEAD

The documentary opens with Hammer’s previous girlfriend Courtney Vucekovich, a beautiful business owner from Texas. She recounts how Hammer slipped into her DMs during Covid and from what started as a month long Instagram only affair evolved into a physical relationship when she met up with Hammer in LA, immediately followed by a 3 week staycation in the desert. There she recounts both a romanticized and traumatic experience mixed with emotions, infatuation, control, and abuse. As she unpacks her story she is extremely emotional as the build up comes to a head during one night in Sedona where Armie allegedly tied her up and “did something to her without asking first” (she didn't feel comfortable saying what exactly he did to her on camera). Not long after that she claimed she became dissociated in which she let Hammer control “every aspect of her”.

More interestingly, the film unpacks what seems to be a dark history of abuse spanning back many generations in the Hammer family all the way to his great grandfather, Armand Hammer, the oil tycoon of Occidental Petroleum. Armand rubbed elbows with the world’s most rich and powerful ranging from the president of Venezuela to Princess Diana. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that Hammer grew up rich, filthy rich. Abuse in his family range from money laundering, to domestic violence, to sexual abuse. The film attempts to make the argument that the crimes and violence that started from his great grandfather, has been passed down in a cycle of abuse to Armie who is now acting on his darkest desires which is described as a mix of BDSM, rape fantasies, cannibalism and control over women, more specifically young, beautiful white women.

The more I watched, the angrier and more confused I felt. Why didn’t I feel sad, and why are these stories not resonating with me as much as they should? Here are some of the themes I felt needed acknowledgement in the film:

BDSM, dirty talk, kink and fantasies are not illegal; this is something that the film fails to outline in the beginning of the documentary and assumes that the revealing of dirty DMs to women who have voluntarily opted into. Online relationship with the actor ( many of which they have never met in real life) leaves very little room for empathy when it comes to messages that soon turn sexual in nature. Armie proceeds to send some very and I mean VERY OFF COLOR texts that range from pet names to rape fantasies. These types of topics are not in itself wrong but in this context can be if there were times in which these women told him to stop all communication or expressed their discomfort in discussing these topics – which they did not, or did not explicitly say in the film. One of the women go as far as defending her “hearting” the DM’s that she then uses to show his abuse while simultaneously saying that “hearting” doesn't mean she actually LIKES what he is saying, rather she is acknowledging that she is engaged in the conversation. Yeah, confusing, right?

The stink of white privilege in this film is all over the place. From Hammer to the victims in the film – the very existence of these storylines leave us scratching our heads saying, wait, why the fuck are they even talking to him if he's so creepy? Access to these types of people, trips, and money described by these women is of a world that most people never get to experience, more rarely women of color. One woman in the film that claimed she never even met Hammer but engaged in Instagram conversations for months said “that she wasn't surprised” that Hammer DM’ed her bc "it happens all the time." We are read somber journal entries by Vucekovich while a montage of airbrushed Instagram stories and selfies taken on the back of Armie’s motorcycle looking like the quintessential Barbie and Ken couple make it hard for the viewer to sympathize. Tears soon follow and I can’t help but think if these were women of color describing the same thing, would the world still care or would it even be a story? On the other hand, the documentary ends with no real resolution, Hammer’s role was still in Death on the Nile and he is filming other movies and planning his comeback. If Hammer was a black man, would there even be an option for a comeback? Doubtful. Black men have been canceled for less.

Is Social Media the real villain in this story? From the contacting of models to the actual outing of Hammer, social media has played a huge role in the build-up and the fall of many actors. But I have a huge problem with the lack of acknowledgement that social media plays in terms of women voluntarily participating in conversations with men they have never met. Not taking responsibility in perpetuating sexual relationships with men without any real articulation of what they're looking for or a declaration of where they would like the relationship to go is a problem. By no means am I defending the nature of the conversations that was described in the film spanning from sexually explicit text messages and direct messages to Hammer expressing a desire to eat their body parts. If it was me receiving text messages and DMs asking to eat one of my ribs, conversation would be over. Why are we not talking about the continuation of conversations and situations beyond our comfort zone?

Why are we not talking about women’s inability to feel safe saying no?

What ever happened to Effie? One of the most compelling scenes in the film is the video from Effie, the women behind the social media profile @HouseofEffie who comes forward to describe many and long instances of abuse. One of the most shocking is a four-hour rape that she said occurred between her and Hammer. You don't really get a resolution as to where that case is. It very well may still be pending as many of these instances happened as recently as 2021 however the lack of acknowledgement of the gravity of that particular crime against Hammer seems to be missed as one of the more crucial and compelling portrayals of Hammer’s abuse towards women.

Conclusion: Watch this documentary with an open mind. Any abuse against women is deplorable and victims should be taken at their word, hard stop.

I am also critical as to how we weave these storylines together. One of the woman in the film raises a good point, “there would be no cancel culture if there wasn't rape culture.” While it is an irrefutable fact that we do live in a rape culture - do telling these types of stories without the acknowledgement of other social and economic inequities really help with the education and the erosion of rape culture, or is just more of the same – a broadcast network making profits off of women’s abuse without any real resolution?

Stream the documentary on Discovery, and let us know.