Film noir is an excellent genre to spoof, what with the too serious voice overs and characters oblivious to the severity of the melodrama that surrounds them. Killing Pedro Rivera is a short that delivers with its two CIA agents in Mexico City trying to find the antidote to the drug that is threatening their sanity. All they have is a name, and they go through the phone book, trying each Mexican equivalent of John Smith in hopes of finding the one who can help them.

Nick Holiday is the protagonist. His partner seems to have already gone over the edge, and Nick's status is unclear - his link to sanity is the cookbook he's been working on. Their desperation for survival is palpable, but the situation is ludicrous. It's dark comedy for sure, but not without its lighter moments. The whole thing is overblown, but somehow it works because of it.