Amy Adams as Louise Banks in “Arrival.” (Jan Thijs/Paramount Pictures)

As the big awards shows that precede the Oscars begin to release their lists of nominees, it’s inevitable, especially after a year defined by #OscarsSoWhite, that picks from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and the Screen Actors Guild, among others, will be scrutinized for what the movie industry values and how it has responded to critiques of its diversity and its role in the presidential election. I’ll certainly be curious to see whether the awards bodies recognize the work of actors like Mahershala Ali, Janelle Monáe and Trevante Rhodes who had breakout years. And I also suspect that there will be a big divide in both the nominations and in the reaction to them about whether or not escapism is appropriate in the current environment.

There are absolutely a bunch of terrific, worthy movies in contention this awards season that are either about history or directly engaged with important issues. I would be exceedingly happy to see “Moonlight,” “Hidden Figures,” “Loving” and “Jackie” — which does interesting, relevant stuff with questions of glamour, conspiracy, the consequences of hateful rhetoric and our ideas about American royalty — take home a whole pile of trophies. But I wouldn’t necessarily consider it an insult to or a rejection of the important ideas in those movies should pictures like “Arrival” or “La La Land” turn in big performances.

I got at this a little bit in my review of “La La Land,” which you can find below, but those two movies have something in common with each other, and with the best so-called “escapist” movies. Though “Arrival” is more political, in that its alien invasion scenario involves different countries’ responses to a world-changing event, even that film isn’t really explicitly designed to comment on the present balance of power in the world. Instead, both “La La Land” and “Arrival” are movies about the questions behind our political fights and international conundrums. How will we face the things that frighten us and that we know are bound to cause us pain? How will we balance the drives to do big things in the world with our desire for the comfort of a tranquil domestic life?

Movies that ask questions like these aren’t avoiding serious issues in ways that are apolitical, or even anti-political. The framework is just different. And so as this awards season proceeds, it’s probably worthwhile for us to remember that whether or not a movie is escapist depends at least as much on what we ask from it as what the movie has on offer.