Variety's review praises "Down the Arm of God," a social drama starring Caleb Landry Jones as a decent Texas priest confronting small-town prejudice, marking a notable departure for an actor known for playing menacing characters. Directed by Peter Brunner, who reteams with Jones after their 2018 film "To the Night," the film offers a critical outsider's perspective on America amid economic inequality and racial division, following the priest's efforts to help a homeless community despite hostility from his own congregation.

The story follows Nick, a young priest newly assigned to a bleak Texas Panhandle parish, who works to support a homeless encampment led by Raven (India Marie Cross), eventually sheltering them inside the church itself during harsh winter weather. This provokes fierce, racially charged backlash from parishioners, including an "ultra-Aryan" couple played by Mena Suvari and Nick Stahl, escalating into what the review calls "violently heated, politicized melodrama." The film, co-written by Jones and Brunner and produced in part by Luc Besson, premiered at Locarno's Piazza Grande and is considered a passion project for Jones, whose father John makes a cameo appearance.