---
title: "Motorama (1991) review"
description: "Answers the age-old question of what would happen if you combined The Adventures of Pete and Pete and Pee-wee's Big Adventure and made it rated R. The answer..."
url: https://www.joekarlsson.com/reviews/motorama/
---

![A still from Motorama (1991)](https://www.joekarlsson.com/images/reviews/motorama/backdrop.webp)

# Motorama (1991)

Feb 1, 2026 | Rated 4 out of 5 | Dir. Barry Shils

Answers the age-old question of what would happen if you combined The Adventures of Pete and Pete and Pee-wee’s Big Adventure and made it rated R. The answer is, you’d get Motorama. What a crazy movie. I loved it.

There’s a little bit of Repo Man in here too - that late stage capitalist messaging about the endless rat race faceless corporations make us run just to keep us entertained and empty. The whole thing is a gas station contest gone fever dream, a kid driving across America chasing prizes that don’t mean anything.

It’s absurdist and wild, a twisted reflection on the American road movie. The West here isn’t freedom - it’s an endless loop of branded experiences and hollow rewards. And somehow it wraps all of that in this surreal, almost children’s-show aesthetic that makes the darkness hit harder.

How did this movie get made? I’m so glad it did.

Also on [Letterboxd](https://letterboxd.com/joekarlsson/film/motorama/)

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Karlsson

I write about my homelab, AI tools, databases, and the weird stuff I build on the side.

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