Video Vanguard: Father John Misty’s Character Flaws Are Painfully Apparent in “Mr. Tillman” and “Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings”

Father John Misty’s sexist egotism clouds his conceptualization of mental health in the music videos for “Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings” and “Mr. Tillman.”

Written by C.S. Harper

Photo courtesy of Tom Jamieson

Armed with a meticulously groomed beard and coffee shop instrumentals, Father John Misty is the final boss of 2010s hipsters. Whether musing about how the sausage is made or going on rants that cut his performances short, he’s without a doubt a character. His 2012 debut, Fear Fun, introduced listeners to his larger-than-life persona and psychedelic-infused brand of folk rock before spiraling into increasingly grandiose instrumentals and lyrics with each release. I Love You, Honeybear and Chloë and the Next 20th Century have swirling symphonics, and while less sonically dense, Pure Comedy and God’s Favorite Customer share the same existential dread. For just over a decade now, Father John Misty (who holds distaste for his government name, Joshua Tillman) has been paving the way for insufferable, craft beer-drinking men to mourn the end of Neutral Milk Hotel and mansplain how social media marks the decline of society.

Tillman has undoubtedly had a polarizing career, with the singer-songwriter once admitting, “I’m not my biggest fan either.” Despite the divisive nature of his music, the Grammy winner (for Best Recording Package, of all things) has garnered a solid fanbase and millions of streams across multiple platforms. Two singles, Fear Fun’s “Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings” and God’s Favorite Customer’s “Mr. Tillman,” are not just some of his greatest hits — they also give insight into Father John Misty’s elusive façade. Although these songs were released six years apart, their accompanying music videos provide starkly different narratives that reveal much about Tillman’s flawed perception of mental health.

As the first single for God’s Favorite Customer’s album rollout, “Mr. Tillman” received more lukewarm reviews than “Hollywood Forever…,” but it shares the latter’s sardonicism. “Mr. Tillman” is written from the perspective of an exasperated concierge who attempts to help a frazzled Tillman, who overstays his welcome at a hotel due to his declining mental health. The song plays with the singer’s signature irony, using an upbeat instrumental with whistles and peppy guitar strums to contrast his increasingly deteriorating cognitive state.

The music video for “Mr. Tillman” features themes similar to its lyrics, juxtaposing light-hearted elements with a more serious narrative. Although it has a comedic undertone with Wes Anderson-esque visuals, the video contains commentary on the singer’s mental health. It begins with an out-of-focus shot of the musician, and the image becomes sharper as the words “Mr. Tillman! Are you ready?” ring in the background. Suddenly, a pair of hands claps a film slate, leaving a bewildered Tillman to play a scene in a hotel as the track starts. At the lobby, he notices a miniature model of the building with a Father John Misty figurine overlooking a taxi from atop the hotel. Confused, Tillman exits the actual building and takes a taxi, but he soon realizes that the vehicle has no driver. The taxi returns to the hotel and stops, and a Father John Misty clone seemingly falls from the sky and lands on the car’s roof. Shocked, the original Tillman tries to help his clone, only for the latter to wake up, briskly take the driver’s seat, and speed away. Tillman reluctantly re-enters the hotel and checks in at the lobby, looking at the miniature model once more.

At the halfway point of “Mr. Tillman,” the music video drastically changes in tone. The song abruptly stops as the singer makes his way to the hotel deck and a voice on a loudspeaker says, “Mr. Tillman! Are you ready?” A boom mic appears behind the singer, causing him to lose balance and fall onto the blood-stained taxi below. The previous taxi scene repeats itself, this time from the perspective of the injured driver. Tillman drives away, only to continually end up at the hotel. He is stuck on a never-ending loop, leaving increasingly sloppy signatures in the lobby’s registry book. In the final shot, he looks at the miniature model one final time and knocks over the figurine as the words “Mr. Tillman, are you ready?” repeat. This time, the words are more somber, leaving the viewer in an unsettling tone.

Like “Mr. Tillman,” “Hollywood Forever…” is a rather light-hearted track with an accompanying music video that showcases much darker subject matter. The acoustic folk-rock track boasts Tillman’s trademark Fear Fun-era humor, as the singer-songwriter recounts his sexual escapades with a woman at a cemetery over a sea of tambourines and electric guitar riffs. “Jesus Christ, girl / What are people going to think?” he sings in a vibrato, sneaking in little white lies about his whereabouts (“I show up to one of several funerals / I’ve attended for Grandpa this week”).

“Hollywood Forever…”’s video features a non-linear narrative and stars Aubrey Plaza, who phenomenally displays a wide range of emotions for the track’s near-five minute duration. She engages in disruptive and reckless behavior throughout, clearly either on a bender or in a serious mental health crisis. The video begins with a close shot of Plaza lying on the ground with blood smeared on her face, after which she begins walking down a street at night while stifling sobs. Suddenly, the camera cuts to a scene earlier in the day, in which she interrupts a gathering of people dressed in black, presumably at a funeral. She smokes from an apple pipe, throws around bottles of wine, and eats flowers while screaming, much to the funeral-goers’ discomfort. In the next scene, she stops by a party, where she once again displays signs of mental instability, crying and hitting her own head. She eventually dances among the crowd before mysteriously disappearing and returning to the party wearing just a blanket. One party guest, Tillman himself, ignores her throughout the event, kissing another man and obliviously dancing while the “White Lotus” star smears berries on his body. Plaza smashes a record player on the ground to get the partygoers’ attention, leaving them disappointed.

The music briefly stops and transitions into an instrumental version of “Hollywood Forever….” At this point, the narrative descends into chaos. A distressed Plaza scurries into a forest as she becomes engulfed by smoke and red flashing lights, encountering a woman amidst the fog. The disoriented protagonist wrestles her to the ground, but rather than hurting her, she hugs her. The camera cuts to the opening shot of Plaza on the ground, and a disgruntled Tillman walks up to her with hands on his hips. He carries her away while she tries to kiss him and hits him when he doesn’t reciprocate the affection. Tillman ultimately stuffs her into a van and begins driving as the shot cuts to black.

Photo courtesy of Paola Kudacki

A baffling music video on the surface, “Hollywood Forever…” shows how Tillman’s misogyny and arrogance have harmful effects on the women around him. Instead of getting help, Tillman ignores Plaza’s character until she hurts herself, at which point he locks her into a van as if to make her and her crisis disappear from his view. While the “Mr. Tillman” music video does capitalize off of the singer’s real-life crisis for entertainment, its comical elements (like the miniature hotel and meta-narrative) serve as metaphors for Tillman’s disorienting experience rather than actual self-deprecation. The video takes a much more sympathetic tone toward his mental health, featuring realistic details like the singer-songwriter’s distressed facial expressions and changes in his handwriting. Comparing the two music videos, it appears Tillman treats his own mental health with more humanity than that of “Hollywood Forever…”’s female lead.

The contrast between “Hollywood Forever…” and “Mr. Tillman” reveals a troubling motif in Tillman’s music. The folk-pop singer fails to consider the female perspective, as well as how his actions affect the women around him. His fatal flaw has prevailed across all of his earlier albums, and it’s most apparent in I Love You Honeybear’s “The Night Josh Tillman Came To Our Apt.” In the first verse, he croons, “Oh, I just love the kind of woman / Who can walk over a man,” before proceeding to berate his love interest for supposedly being too pretentious and shallow at once. By the release of God’s Favorite Customer in 2018, however, Tillman had a change of heart. In “The Songwriter,” he reflects on his career and finally recognizes how toxic he has been toward his wife, pondering what life would be like if their roles as the songwriter and muse were switched.

Apart from their entertainment value, the music videos for “Mr. Tillman” and “Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings” provide insight into Tillman’s evolving self-perception and treatment of the women surrounding him. Although both videos are firmly rooted in the Rockville-born singer’s past misogyny and self-centeredness, his worldview has changed for the better over his past two albums. Despite Tillman’s rocky path toward solidarity with others and himself, he’s finally proving that he’s more than just a “mustache and a bad attitude.”