Too bad 'Motorama' never found an audience that would appreciate it! Misleadingly thought by some to be a kids movie, it is closer in spirit to David Lynch's stylized surreal looks at the "real" America. Jordan Christopher Michael plays a young boy who runs away from home, and travel across America in a stolen car. Only it isn't exactly America as we know it. At a gas station he is given some "motorama" cards, which are part of a competition which has a possible 500 million dollar prize. He slowly becomes obsessed with the game as he continues on his increasingly bizarre trip, which sees him encounter a strange bunch of oddballs, eccentrics and weirdos. He even loses an eye along the way! The nutters he interacts with are played by an amazing array of character actors and cult figures including Lynch favourite Jack Nance ('Eraserhead'), Susan Tyrrell ('Flesh and Blood'), Mary Woronov ('Eating Raoul'), Michael J. Pollard ('Bonnie And Clyde'), John Diehl ('Stripes'), Dick Miller ('A Bucket Of Blood'), Robert Picardo ('Innerspace'), Flea, Meatloaf, and a teenage Drew Barrymore (note sleaze fans - a pre-breast reduction teenage Drew Barrymore!). This movie is easily overlooked in the video racks - especially with its misleading "Home Alone meets Thelma And Louise" packaging - but it is really worth watching. Fans of quirky road movies like 'Wild At Heart', 'Highway 61' or 'Roadside Prophets' should enjoy this quietly subversive dark fantasy, which in my opinion is one of the most unfairly overlooked movies of the last ten years or so.
