“And now if we think further about negative emulation, all kinds of other interesting questions come into play that kind of go along the lines of what we were just talking about, like what are the great things and also the limitations of a film negative. Here’s one that is not popular and people don’t like to talk about: film negative doesn’t have the dynamic range that a modern digital sensor does. It just doesn’t. So, what do we do with that? Do I want to mimic the lower dynamic range of a film negative? That’s not the craziest thing in the world but it’s also another example of the type of subjective question we have to answer if we’re going to emulate film negatives – like, what parts do we want to emulate? Do we really want to emulate that part? I don’t necessarily see a benefit to rolling off my highlights prematurely that otherwise would be preserved and available to me in a grade. I’m not sure what the benefit is there.” – Cullen Kelly
On a related note, it’s been years since I watched any streamed SDR movies or TV series, but since I was searching for work graded by colorists I admire, I ended up watching several over the past couple days and was struck by how clipping of highlights really is a feature of SDR. And I can’t honestly say that I like it.
Hardly surprising that not a single person in the comments section of the video the quote is taken from responded to Cullen Kelly’s remarks about film emulation, some of the most insightful I’ve come across anywhere. And that’s in spite of the fact that the video’s entitled Film & Film Emulation from a Senior Colorist and has gotten 17,000 views.
The Daejeon Chronicles 
While the quoted statement in this post has its validation, it is not less valid that it has been established that, in general, a negative film has a dynamic range of about 13 to 14 stops, which is close to today’s digital camera sensors. For example, accordingly, cinematographer David Mullen, ASC quoting Kodak, says that the company claims that KODAK Vision 3 has 14 stops of DR. Of course, during the print, these numbers are reduced. The issue film and digital video encountered in the past and today is not due to the dynamic range of the film, but the analog displays at the beginning, the CRT, and protectors, and later by the limitation of further display limited by SDR 100 nits. This includes a light meter calibrated within seven stops or dynamic range and camera profiles.
It was not until 16 years ago that, for the first time, HDR display development finally made it possible to see the true contrast ratios and full dynamic range of the film’s negative and modern digital cameras. It’s worth noticing that HDR is more than extended specular highlights and shadows; it’s about larger color spaces, a bigger canvas to play with other light characteristics than luminance.
The statement in the quote makes the film negative appears to have insufficient dynamic range.