For Joseph Gordon-Levitt, the mystery of Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick wasn’t about how he lost the reins of the ride-share company. It was about why he put the pedal to the metal at all.
“Super Pumped: The Battle For Uber,” which premiered Sunday on Showtime and is based on Mike Isaac’s book of the same name, drives alongside its ambitious CEO through the trials and tribulations of a Silicon Valley startup, all the way through Kalanick’s 2017 ousting in a boardroom coup.
The story of Uber, like so many other heady dreams, is one that burned too bright, taken down by greed or ambition or corporate overlords. So Gordon-Levitt focused on the star at the center.
