The myriad flaws of consumer culture notwithstanding, I cannot help but be impressed whenever I see a really good commercial. Therefore, I extend my congratulations to Volkswagen for their new Beetle Convertible spot (click “see the commercial”), which has been screening before films in New York theaters for the past month or so.

The commercial is particularly impressive for the “indie” cool it affects, perfectly suited both to the car’s 20-something target demographic, and to the spot’s pre-film screening approach. What gives the commercial indie cred? At least four factors:

1. Quasi-retro styling. Check out the lead actor’s clothing, the very Thomas Crown Affair (original version – not Brosnan remake) use of split screen, the slightly de-saturated color timing, and, of course, the music (see no. 2).

2. The music. As in prior commercials, VW has built the whole thing around a reasonably obscure but remarkably catchy musical blast from the past. (Consider previous commercials featuring such songs as Styx’ “Mr. Roboto”, Mingus’ “II BS”, Trio’s “Da Da Da” or Nick Drake’s “Pink Moon”, the last of which single-handedly launched the current Nick Drake revival.) This spot features the much-overlooked Electric Light Orchestra, with the perfectly chosen and bizarrely addictive “Mr. Blue Sky” (though in what sounds like a more recent recording than the song’s original release).

3. The lead. The poor guy is so blatantly a Jake Gyllenhaal rip-off (see Moonlight Mile) that it’s almost painful. Lest you doubt VW’s leveraging Gyllenhaal’s indie cred in particular rather than that of shaggy-haired actors in general, check the spot’s title: “Bubble Boy”, a sideways homage to a really poor film in which Gyllenhaal recently starred.

4. The concept. Standard affluent twenty-something experience: A few years out of school and things are going as well as you possibly could have hoped – you’ve got the job, you’re climbing the corporate ladder. And yet your life is mindlessly repetitive unbearable drivel. If a Porsche can pull you out of a mid-life crisis, what can pull you out of a quarter-life crisis?

Taken together, those four factors make the commercial remarkably hip. So I say, excellent work VW. If only the car was half as cool as the commercial.