I've never ever heard of this movie until a friend of mine recommended it after having a 2-month long sabbatical from work where he gambled on whatever movies on Prime he came across. And this film is a reminder that some movies finding distribution can sometimes be a miracle. Would Clerks be the indie hit that it was if the right people hadn't seen it at the right time? It's very possible. I think Motorama is a movie that wasn't able to capture that lightning in a bottle and find the audience it was looking for.
Motorama would be the lovechild if Repo Man, Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, Mad Max, Tim Burton and Terry Gilliam fucking. It plays (and was advertised) like a children's film, but it's more of a surrealist fever dream road movie, taking place in an alternate reality United States.
A young boy decides to travel across the country, playing a crazy card game at participating gas stations where he needs to spell out “Motorama” to win 500 million dollars. The premise is simple enough, but the interactions and characters certainly are not. The protagonist has run-ins with lowlifes, bikers, horny teens, and weird cameos by Dick Miller, Meatloaf and Drew Barrymore along the way. Unrecognizable states, strangely colored money and desert landscapes abounding.
This movie made 10K at the box office and 1,000 votes on IMDB. I have found barely anything about it online. It must have been a film festival movie that didn’t receive distribution or something? How this isn't a cult movie by now, I will never know.
Directed by a producer of The Stuff (who hasn’t really made much since) and written by the writer of After Hours, this film is a cult movie in the making (I hope).
Free to watch on Prime.
