‘Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber’ takes another ride through the world of tech titans

Gordon-Levitt is all kinetic power and relentless salesmanship as Travis Kalanick, the Uber chief who payments himself as “a disrupter” and has an off-the-cuff relationship with the reality, a lot in order that his tales incessantly reduce from the model he is telling to extra correct depictions of what truly occurred.

Nonetheless, that is not all that is sticky about this form of enterprise, from Kalanick’s willpower to crush his opponents to recruiting the form of hard-charging executives who make for human-resources nightmares, a toll exacted on the corporate’s few feminine workers. It is an surroundings the place the query “Is that this authorized?” is met by sly grins and laughter throughout.

Primarily based on Mike Isaac’s bestselling ebook, Kalanick is depicted as being equally ruthless and self-absorbed in his private interactions. He additionally finds an unlikely ally within the media-savvy Ariana Huffington (Uma Thurman, nailing the accent), who helps him navigate the murky waters coping with the likes of Google and Apple. That features a assembly with the latter’s Tim Cook dinner (Hank Azaria), who’s delay by Kalanick’s “rapacious must win.”

At occasions “Tremendous Pumped” feels a bit too cute for its personal good, with shifting factors of view and characters breaking the fourth wall to straight handle the viewers. But it is nonetheless a sharply written examination of the buccaneering mentality that birthed many of those once-scrappy startups, with the lure of billions motivating (and serving to present rationalizations for) all kinds of dangerous conduct.

Nonetheless, it is an intriguing snapshot of 1 significantly flashy instance of the move-fast, break-stuff mentality, whereas offering its principals, Gordon-Levitt and Chandler, loads of alternative to shine.

Showtime, furthermore, has already ordered a second season dedicated to the founding of Fb — which can also be the topic of a restricted collection being developed at rival HBO — making that aforementioned “Social Community” comparability much more apt, sustaining the franchise in idea by dissecting a special case examine every season.

Kalanick, at one level, is described as “a predatory animal,” and as depicted, it is onerous to argue in any other case. “Tremendous Pumped” successfully illustrates that whereas such personalities won’t be nice to stay with (and even share a trip with), as films or restricted collection go, they are often fairly fascinating to observe.

“Tremendous Pumped: The Battle for Uber” premieres Feb. 27 at 10 p.m. ET on Showtime.