Inception reminded me a lot of a couple other movies: 2001: A Space Odyssey and Kill Bill. Like 2001, Inception is an intensely cerebral movie that, while centered on profoundly human concerns, considers those concerns from an objective distance. The audience sees Cobb’s struggles, but never fully identifies with him. Like Kill Bill, Inception is the sin qua non of its director’s aesthetic. Kill Bill is the most Tarantinesque movie Quentin Tarantino has made. He stuffed it with every movie reference he could, and offered an homage in some form to every genre he loves — exploitation, wushu, chambara, western, anime — and then told exactly the kind of story he likes to see. Inception is certainly the most Nolanesque movie Nolan has made. All the themes that have defined his ouvre — dead wives, obsession with those dead wives, grand but morally dubious projects, self-delusion, sharp action, architecture, head games — are fully exploited. With Inception Nolan has indulged himself in the same way Tarantino did with Kill Bill.