Tender Hooks is a 1988 Australian romantic comedy drama film directed by Mary Callaghan and starring Jo Kennedy and Nique Needles.

In late 1980s Sydney, Mitchell (nicknamed Mitch) is a young woman living in a run-down Kings Cross apartment building when she falls for the mischievous and charming Rex, fresh out of jail.

While Mitchell works in a hair salon and attempts to make a life for herself and Rex, she becomes frustrated with his immaturity and tendency to fall back into criminal offending.

Meanwhile their mutual friend Gayle, who grew up with Rex in state care and now divides her time between sex work and shifts at the salon with Mitchell, finds herself in a clearly violent and toxic abusive relationship.

When he escapes shortly before the end of his sentence, Mitchell visits him as he hides out from the police in a Kings Cross apartment and angrily confronts him about his reckless behaviour.

As the film ends, she watches from a distance as Rex gets out of the car and speaks briefly to a police officer - who then removes a barricade, allowing them to drive on.

The shoot proved difficult for many reasons, including various technical issues and the fact that the script called for "over forty noisy, no-parking inner-city locations, many of them night exteriors, which had to be shot in 33 ten-hour days".