Here's the thing: this documentary had a weird premise in 2008, and it's aged like milk left in a hot car.
Spurlock's shtick—the everyman journalist doing stunts for insight—worked better with Super Size Me's fast food investigation than with geopolitical terrorism. Turning the hunt for bin Laden into a travel documentary feels gimmicky at best and tone-deaf at worst. The 38% critic score tells you what you need to know: even when it was released, critics weren't buying it.
For educational value, sure, there are moments where Spurlock talks to regular people and challenges American stereotypes about the Middle East. That's worthwhile. But it's wrapped in such a dated, personality-driven package that modern teens would likely tune out within 20 minutes.
Add to that: bin Laden was killed in 2011, making the entire premise historically moot. Watching this in 2025 is like watching someone search for something you already know they won't find, using 17-year-old cultural references.
If you want your teen to learn about Middle Eastern cultures or post-9/11 geopolitics, there are far better, more current documentaries. This one's a skip unless you're specifically studying early 2000s American media attitudes as a historical artifact.