Couldn't have said it better myself, canofhumdingers!

I caught Interstellar over the weekend in 15/70 Imax and Nolan's love for both 2001: A Space Odyssey and Star Wars is ALL OVER THIS. I lost count of the Kubrick homages, and Bill Irwyn is like the Tony Daniels / Kenny Baker of this movie.

As for the "paradox," I was thinking the exact same thing at first, but after thinking about it for a couple days it actually seems to make sense. I'll need to see it again to confirm it, and also just so I can fully get a grasp of everything going on in the story. Seeing it in real Imax was like sensory overload.