Fantastic Fest’s comedy division is known, appropriately enough, as “Gut Busters”, and while this year there were a few movies that promised all manner of profanity, nothing reached the hilariously obscene heights of last year’s Klown (2010).

We expected a lot more from the non-nude Vulgaria (2012), a Hong Kong showbiz comedy about a beleaguered producer charged with making a Category III (X-rated) film for a gangster with an, ahem, special fondness for mules. Special commendation goes to the frequently braless (but never actually topless) Dada Chan (left) and her Pop Rocks blowjob technique, but unless you have at least some knowledge of Hong Kong film, all the sly in-jokes about Sex and Zen 3D will go right over your head.

The same is true for the nude comedy New Kids Nitro (2011). This is actually the second New Kids movie, based on a popular Comedy Central series that plays sort of like the Dutch Trailer Park Boys. And while we heartily endorse cum jokes (so many cum jokes), mulleted loudmouths breaking windows and drag racing, and the prolific use of the word “cunt,” all the humor that isn’t outrageously anti-PC is specific to Dutch culture and, again, will go right over your head. But hey, Eurotrash babe Juliette van Ardenne goes topless on a sex tape and a lady runs through a field totally nude before being eaten by zombies, so it wasn’t a total loss.

And while they’re not comedies, per se, this year’s Fantastic Fest offered up an interesting juxtaposition between Wrong (2012) and Holy Motors (2012), both non-nude. Holy Motors (2012) is the current darling of the beret-wearing set; French character actor Denis Lavant stars as Monseiur Oscar, an employee of an unnamed “agency” who over the course of one day is chauffeured to a series of “appointments” by his loyal driver Edith Scob. Each “appointment” requires Mr. Oscar to take on a different identity, from a family man to an assassin to a feral wild man who kidnaps supermodel Eva Mendes (left) from a photo shoot. Un-apologetically dream-like and occasionally just crazy, Holy Motors is open to many interpretations and produced strong (and slightly different) reactions from every member of the audience. At one point, a character yells “Beauty! Weird! Beauty! Weird!” as he eats flowers running through a graveyard. If that sounds like something you’d like and you aren’t afraid of a little ambiguity, it’s genius. If you’re looking forward to the Red Dawn (2012) remake, avoid it at all costs.

Wrong (2012) is the new movie from Rubber (2010) director Quentin Dupieux, but where Rubber fairly pummeled you in the head with its message, Wrong shows instead of tells, and it's a better movie for it. Jack Plotnick stars as Dolph Springer, who wakes up one morning at 7:60 AM to find that his dog has disappeared. The distraught Dolph soon receives a message from the mysterious Master Chang (WilliamFitchner, who steals the show), who offers him the chance to experience a higher plane of spiritual communion with his pooch using his book, “My Life, My Dog, My Strength.” Highly mannered and bleakly absurdist in its outlook of human nature, our strongest impressions of Wrong were in its moments of dadaist comedy, like when a painter approaches Victor (Eric Judor) and declares “Sir, I took it upon myself to paint your vehicle blue.” You might say, "but when the only relationship in the film that doesn’t end with an existentialist nightmare is between a man and his dog, what’s the point?", to which we say "Exactly."

Join us tomorrow as we wrap up our Fantastic Fest 2012 coverage with an interview with Noboru Iguchi, director of Sukeban Boy (2006) and Mutant Girls Squad (2010)!