One of the greatest YouTube clips that I have ever seen is a video of Noam Chomsky and Michel Foucault arguing on a Dutch television show. Watching two of the greatest minds of the second half of the 20th century engaging in a debate about the nature of power and institutions in capitalist society is still fascinating to this day.

So Kate Albright-Hanna had a lot to compete with when she sealed an interview with Noam Chomsky. Sadly Hanna, who is best known as the woman who documented Obama’s campaign over 10 years, does not ask as much of Chomsky as Foucault did.

For someone who knows little of the political campaigning and rigorous academic work Chomsky has done over the past half a century, this is an interesting, insightful 20-minute documentary. He has a fascinating version of history and Hanna succeeds in splicing this together with a series of beautiful videos from throughout the twentieth century.

Where I feel the interview is missing something, however, is that at times Hanna’s approach is so deferential that it borders on the dull. Chomsky is never challenged on his views and so many of his responses feel like remarks he has been making across the world for the past few decades. When, for example, he says that right-wing politics is dominant in the US because it has more answers — even if they are the wrong answers — she fails to engage him further in a discussion of why the left has failed to engage, preferring instead to ask about the internet.

Chomsky is always a delight to hear and his style is wonderful to watch. His brain is still as sharp as ever and he engages fully with the challenges of the contemporary world. But up against such stiff competition in the free market of the internet, you can’t help feeling this well-made film lacks the bite needed to make a major impact.